


Agents of SHIELD - Operation Exiles: Volume 1 "Mirror Mirror"

by kamenrangerxvi01



Series: Agents of SHIELD: The EXILES Saga [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon Divergence, Dimension Travel, F/F, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase Two Compliant, Multi, Parallel Universes, Relationship(s), mcu - Freeform, skimmons - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 00:43:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 28,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14842328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kamenrangerxvi01/pseuds/kamenrangerxvi01
Summary: Agent Scott Riley never wanted to be a big name in SHIELD. He was perfectly happy in the background, doing his part to keep the world safe. But when a strange machine that shouldn't exist arrives, it leads the Agents of SHIELD, along with poor Scott, on a path to an adventure many worlds in the making.





	1. Strange Arrvials

**Author's Note:**

> This story is drawn from MCU canon up to "Avengers Infinity War" and the season 5 finale of Agents of SHIELD and diverges from there. I started writing this series in January 2018, under the impression the show wouldn't get renewed.
> 
> My take on the universe (and the possible outcomes of Avengers Endgame prior to the film being released) were based upon having read the original 1991 Infinity Gauntlet miniseries comic.
> 
> (April 2019: having seen “Endgame”, I have finalized how my story ties in with main MCU and herby designate for my personal purposes, the world of my story as Earth 199999-Alpha)

“I’m all yours big boy…” She said with a smile.

Scott started to subconsciously drool.

She was here….

She was here for him…

She WANTED him…

She was standing there in her birthday suit, trying to look as cute and sexy as possible. Her clothes were in a pile at her feet.

“Well, Mr. Super Spy, let’s see if you can bring the goods…”

He walked towards her, ready…

 

“ _In the not too distant future…. Next Sunday AD_ ”

Scott stopped, hearing something familiar.

“ _There was a guy named Jonah, not to different from you or me…_ ”

“Wait” he said to himself, rubbing his eyes. He looked up, and she was gone. Everything was gone. It was all black.

 

Scott’s eyes shot opened and he immediately sat up on the couch in his office. He’d nodded off. The theme song to the modern incarnation of “Mystery Science Theater 3000” was playing somewhere nearby.

“crap” He thought to himself. “I must have left Netflix running again.”

He pulled himself off the cushions just as the song reached its crescendo, before Felicia Day’s lines, when a new horror struck him. The song started over.

It wasn’t the TV, but the ring tone on his phone.

 

He ran over to his desk to answer.

“Agent Riley?” came a voice before he could say anything. A voice he recognized.

Phil Coulson.

“Sir, I’m sorry I…”

“No need to apologize Scott, I know I’m waking you up, it’s 4AM.”

“Oh… Ok then… what’s the matter sir? Is Barty in trouble again?”

“No,” his boss continued, “but this does have something to do with your cousin. He found something of ours in an old MI6 operations base that had been abandoned for decades. It’s being brought in.”

“While that’s great and all sir, what does that have to do with me and the museum? This sounds way more like an 0-8-4 type deal and that’s more your crew’s speed than mine.”

“We don’t have the room at the moment, and your last report mentioned you’d repaired the secure containment system in your receiving bay. It’s just for a few days and besides, you like this stuff. It’s a piece of previously unknown SSR hardware. Mack and Daisy should be along any minute in a quinjet to drop it off. ”

“Sir, I’ve been here for three months, and I’m still processing most of the crap that was already here. I haven’t even gotten to anything moved over from the Lighthouse.”

“It’s just for a few days.” The older man reminded him before he hung up.

 

“Daisy… here... Oh crap.”

Then Scott’s morning just got worse as his com beeped to life.

“This is SHEILD 84793 requesting landing clearance”

It was Mack’s voice, which meant he was in front with the pilot. Which ment Daisy was probably going to be the one steping off first. He quickly moved a few things, threw out some crap lying on his desk and pulled a clean SHIELD T-shirt out of a draw, almost putting it on over the one he was wearing. 

He then slammed a big red button on the wall by the door, and the roof of the landing bay outside began to slide back. The small black transport plane lowered itself into the bay. Once its wheels were on the ground and the engines off, the rear began to lower itself.

There, standing next to a large wooden crate, was probably the most beautiful woman Scott had ever laid eyes on.

 Daisy Johnson

 

This wasn’t a case of some fan meeting their idol. It was worse.

Much worse.

 

Scott and Daisy had known each other for a few years, having first met face to face at the old SHIELD “Playground” base after Coulson had restarted the organization in the wake of the Hydra take over attempt. She was an Ops agent, possibly the best in years. She was always at the center of whatever was going on, having an all but in name “father-daughter” relationship with Coulson. Scott, on the other hand, had, until recently been tech support and repair. He’d kept the Playground’s complicated computer network running smoothly and fixed things when they broke or got blown up. Their relationship had been quite cordial, sharing an interest in computers, but recently, things had gotten… a bit complicated.

 

Scott pressed the button to close the roof and walked down to them, a nervous wreck.

“You got this… you got this…” he muttered to himself. “Just pretend it’s like old times.”

“Agent Johnson…” He greeted her, feeling awkward about addressing her with her first name after what happened.

“Sc…Agent Riley” She answered back. The two SHEILD agents stood there awkwardly for a moment before she spoke “So… you’re looking good.”

Scott’s heart stopped and every neuron in his brain fired off at once. “CRAP… What do I say… what do I say…” he screamed internally.

“I… um… Yeah, you too…”

“You two look more awkward than Fitz and Simmons back in the day.” Mack said, walking towards the two from out of the plane.

“Sorry” The two agents said almost in unison.

Scott held up a crowbar he’d brought from the office and handed it to the taller man.

“Soooo….” Scott continued, rubbing his hands together, trying to keep her presence out of his mind “What’s in the box from ‘The Cousin from MI6?”

“We’re not sure” Daisy answered “he wasn’t there when we picked it up. Something about a Somali gun running ring that needed taking out. Seems they’d gotten their hands on some of the last loose Chitari hardware.”

“Yeah, that moron gets the easy stuff…” Scott said “ungrateful bastard. We save his ass and still not so much as a thank you.”

Mac took the crowbar to the side of the crate. It was a rather tall box, nearly six feet. The panel dropped off and reveled what looked like a really old computer terminal, like something out of the orginal Star Trek. It had the words “STARK-ONE” spray painted on the casing. They quickly took off the top and sides.

“Wow” The two younger agents said, again almost in unison.

“Knowing how far ahead of the curve Howard Stark was” Daisy said “this could be one of the first microcomputers”

“Looks like it” Scott agreeded “but what’s that glass thing on top?” He was pointing to a rounded glass bulb mounted to the top of the machine. It had four smaller bulbs sticking out at right angles from the neck and some weird contraption inside

“I don’t know, some sort of monitor?”

“But the parts inside more like a speaker attached to one of those spinning temperature differential things with the black and white panels.” Scott said, spinning his finger as he tried but failed to remember the contraption’s name “I don’t think any of that contains a CRT electron gun.”

“If you two nerds don’t mind, I’ll like to get this unloaded so I can go back to base and get some sleep…” Mack interjected.

“Sure,” Scott said “You want one of us to do it? Or…”

“I can’t be seen letting you two kids do all the work.”

Mack slid the machine off the ramp and onto a large SHIELD logo in the bay floor. MI6 had been nice enough to put the base of the box on wheels. He centered it, relocked the wheels and then returned to the Quinjet.

Scott grabbed a large remote on a heavy cord from a mount on the wall and pressed another button, which caused the logo to lower itself down onto the level below, into a secure holding area. Panels with a new logo slid out to cover the hole.

“Well, we’d better get back to base” Daisy said “It… um… It was great seeing you again…”

“Um yeah… great… great seeing you too…”

“Fitz and Simmons will be here with some lab techs in a few hours.”

“Ok.” Scott nodded “Do me a favor and tell the others I said hi.”

“Will do…”

The two stood there awkwardly again, only to be interrupted by the quinjet starting up. The two scrambled, with Daisy running up the ramp into a jump set and Scott back to the office to reopen the roof. The plane lifted from the ground and off into the pre-dawn sky.

“Damn it” He yelled to himself, punching the wall “She was right there! You just had to tell her. Three simple words…”

 

Scott, still fuming with himself, typed up a quick email to Coulson confirming the delivery and asking for an ETA on the arrival of the two newlywed British scientists, then switched on the security camera in the containment room.

“Item log: 5456523-89, temporary holding from headquarters” He dictated into his phone. “Item is noted as being five feet, 7 inches tall, four feet wide and two and one half feet deep. Object’s construction appears to be of standard steel and/or aluminum….”

He then noticed the glass bulb thing on top start to glow and the gadget inside start to spin. The suddenly, electrical arcs began to shoot out of it.

“Object appears to have activated itself…” Scott continued to record before the camera feed died. He grabbed his gear belt and ran out of the office and down the stairs.

By the time he got to the door to the containment room, the popping and cracking of the arcs had disappeared. He unlocked the heavy door and stepped in, ICER drawn just to be on the safe side. Whatever the machine had done had an effect on the lights as it was pitch dark.

The room’s lights came back to full brightness and Scott was greeted to a figure standing between him and the machine with their back to him, a young woman in an old style US Army uniform.

The woman spun in place, gun drawn.

“Daisy?” Scott said in complete shock “How’d you get in here?”

It was Daisy, but she was… different.

“Who the hell are you and where the hell am I!?!” She screamed at him. Then suddenly a panicked look entered her face. “Are you CHIMERA? Where’s Jemma? Jemma where are you?” She looked around slightly, gun still trained on Scott.

“Calm down, Daisy, Jemma’s not here yet.” Scott said.

“WHO THE FUCK IS DAISY?!?” She yelled, almost in tears “Where’s my Jemma? Where’s my WIFE?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the more obivous plot holes will be addressed as the story progresses.
> 
> trust me.
> 
>  
> 
> P.S. Just in case it isn't obvious, the girl Scott is dreaming about is Daisy.


	2. Familar Strangers

“Ok, look, you are obviously upset, so, I’d like to make a suggestion. Let’s just both put our guns down and talk about this like grownups. Is that ok with you?” Scott asked, trying to keep her from ether putting a bullet in his head or quaking him into the wall.

 “Seriously, who the hell are you to tell me what to do?” She stammered.

 

It slowly dawned on him this might not be the person he thought it was.

“My name is Scott Riley. I’m a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.”

“Shield? What the heck is that? Where am I? Answer me!”

“OK, calm down, calm down. I’m gonna put my gun away now, and you’re going to do the same thing and we’re gonna go upstairs to my office and have a nice chat. You like coffee? Want some coffee?”

“Coffee? How does someone like you have something as rare and expensive as coffee you can just offer it willy-nilly?”

“Well I have a Keurig and… Wait, what?”

  “I don’t have time this, I need to get to Jemma” She started yelling “Jemma! Jemma, honey, it’s me, Skye! Where are you sweetie? OWWW!” The girl who looked like Daisy suddenly had her hand to her head, almost as if in pain. Scott saw his chance.

 

With a simple movement of his free hand, the gun in her hands flew off as if it had a mind of its own. A second flick caused the machine to slide to the side. Then he held his palm open and thrust forward. While she was still several feet away, this action sent her flying into the back wall, pinning her in place a few inches off the ground.

“Sorry” he said, keeping his hand out “But we’re just not getting anywhere playing Mexican standoff.” He holstered his ICER and waved his other hand, drawing the gun to him.

“How are you doing that? What the fuck are you” she yelled “Jemma! Anyone? Help!”

Her gun flew up into his free hand. He pressed the release, causing the clip to fall to the ground, followed by poping out the chambered round. He then threw it out of the room. He then unholstered his IECR and did the same. Lastly, he then caused the door to swing closed.

 

At this point the young woman had begun crying. Scott relaxed his left hand and she slid down the few inches from where he’d pinned her.

“What are you?” She sputtered, clearly terrified.

“A Telekinetic” He said matter-of-factly “Now I know you’re not my Daisy. She knows about my powers.”

“That’s what I’ve saying…”

“No, you’ve just been screaming at the top of your lungs. So, if your name isn’t Daisy, what is it?”

“I’m Lt. Skye Simmons of the Strategic Scientific Reserve.”

“SSR?” Scott said puzzled. “Skye… Simmons…”

“So you know who I am, Mr… what was it again?”

“Agent Scott Kenneth Riley of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division, at your service.” he said with a  small bow.

“wow… Someone really wanted your name to spell SHIELD” she said

“Yeah… we get that a lot.” He said “If I may ask, Lieutenant, this might sound stupid, but what year is it?”

“…2018…” which she pronounced out as ‘Two thousand eighteen’ instead of ‘Twenty Eighteen’ like Daisy normally would.

“OK, that’s right, but, here’s the thing. I know all about the SSR because S.H.I.E.L.D. replaced it; decades ago from my perspective.”

“Replaced?” She said increduisly “What are you talking about? SSR has kept the world safe for more than 70 years. Why would anyone want to replace us?”

“Look, just come upstairs with me, I’ll get you some water and we’ll get this all straightened out and hopefully send you right back to where ever it was you came from and out of my hair.”

“You still haven’t told me where I am, how I got here or how the hell you wave your hands and I get pinned to the wall across a room.”

He stopped and looked at her

“In the order asked;

“This is S.H.I.E.L.D. Station A-12497, it doesn’t have an official name other than that, but I call it ‘The Museum’. This is where lots of our old, decommissioned equipment is stored. My job is to catalog it and keep watch over it. We’ve had issues over the past few years with hardware being stolen. Some creep in a jetpack.

 “I’m still working on the details of how you got here, but I’ve got a good idea as to what happened.  

“And as for the little magic trick, I’ve got no friggen clue myself, I just can. I’m gifted like that.”

 

 

Skye followed Scott upstairs.

When she got to his office, she panicked.

“You ARE CHIMERA!” She yelled and started swinging at him

“Whoa! whoa! whoa! Please don’t make me play pin the wall with the lady again. What’s the matter now?”

“THAT!” she yelled pointing at his desk.

“My Computer?”

“You’re in possession of contraband technology. Work not registered or authorized under the SCRA and the PSSC. When Director Garret gets here looking for me, he’s going to put your ass behind bars forever!”

“Director Garret… as in John Garret?” Scott asked, rubbing his forhead. “oily haired guy… Texas accent… really creepy smile?”

“Yeah. I’m his personal assistant, and you are in BIG trouble…”

This basically confirmed Scott’s theory.

“Skye.” He began, taking a deep breath “Garret isn’t coming. Jemma’s not coming. At least not how you know her. SSR is long gone and nobody is putting me in jail for that.” He said, pointing over his shoulder.

“How the hell can you know that?”

“Let’s see… As far as I’m aware, John Garret died four, close to five years ago. He was also a grade A asshole who got what he deserved. Jemma Simmons is an acquaintance of mine and I happen to know she’s married to her husband, Leo Fitz. You two have never been a couple. If anything, you’re more like sisters.”

“No… No… stop lying to me. Look just please take me to her and I’ll let everything else slide. PLEASE! I need to see her! She’s having our baby and she’s due any day now!”

“OK… I was not expecting that one.” Scott suddenly felt a lot worse about the situation.

 

He took a step closer to Skye, but she backed away in fear.

“Look,” he said, trying to figure what to do with his hands before putting them in his pockets to show he wouldn’t use his powers again “I want to make this crystal clear; I am not your enemy. I do not want to hurt you, not in the least bit. Right now, I want nothing more than to get you home, to get you back to your wife and your child. BUT, until I can figure out how to do that you need to calm down and listen to me. Can you do that for me?”

She nodded.

“I want you to listen to me very carefully, please.” Scott continued “Things are not what they seem. You need to throw every preconceived notion out the window, and I mean all of them. Something, I’m not sure what, has gone terribly, terribly wrong, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fixable.”

“Why can’t I just call her?” Skye asked

“Because the person you know isn’t going to answer. Look, tell you what, I know a way to prove everything.”

He walked over to his desk and played back the security camera footage from earlier of himself, Mack and Daisy unloading the machine together.

“That’s me?” She said, confused.

“THAT is S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Daisy Johnson, a… well… she’s a friend of mine.”

“But that’s me, but I don’t remember this.”

“Because it happened to a ‘you’ that isn’t you…”

“SPEAK ENGLISH” Skye snapped.

“The Many-Worlds Theory of reality. Parallel dimensions existing together. Other worlds. The Omniverse. The idea that everything one could possibly think of, no matter how out there, is happening, has happened and will happen.”

Scott picked up a nearby book, a copy of “Ready Player One”.

“See this book? It’s a work of fiction. But you want to know what? Somewhere out there is a version of Earth where its events are playing out right now.”

Skye didn’t understand anything he was saying. “You sure you didn’t get loose from a nut house?”

“No one calls them that anymore.” He said, slamming the book down on the desk “Let’s put this in simple terms; Skye… You’re attracted to other women, correct?”

The girl nodded.

“JUST other women?” he asked

“Yeah..? I fail to see where this is going.”

“Just hear me out. Hypothetically, have you ever, at any time, thought about kissing a boy or found a male in any way attractive?”

“No way” She said with a grossed out look on her face. “I’ve known I’m a homosexual since I was a little kid.”

“What if I told you that through one of the most accepted general understandings of the nature of existence, is that somewhere out there is a version of you who finds me irresistibly attractive. There’s another version of you who is married to some guy with three kids and a house in the suburbs and who has never held a gun in her life. Hell, by the simple law of probability, there’s got to be a few versions of you who _are_ guys.”

She tilted her head in confusion.

“The idea is that at every decision, every action, results in a split in reality. One new world for each possible outcome of the presented choice to occur in, along with the further effect of those choices. It could be as simple as a flip of a coin or as complex as a reality with completely different laws of physics. If you can think of it, it’s out there somewhere.”

“Wow” she said, mind officially blown. “So what does this have to do with me?”

“At some point in the past, our two worlds split off, your world going down one path, mine going down another. Skye, this is not the world you know. This is not the history you know. This is _another_ Earth. You are in a _different_ universe, parallel to the one you know, similar to the one you know but not the same. That woman on the screen is technically the same person as you, but she leads a different life than you do, has a different history. She has walked down a different path. I’ve known her for about five years now and to my knowledge she’s never dated a girl. Hell, I’ve met a few of her ex-boyfriends. One was an OK guy but the others were all dicks.”

“Isn’t that kinda? Being guys I mean they…?”

“Its slang, it means they were jerks.”

“Oh…”

“It’s the same for everyone. I would dare say even worse for some people you know. They probably don’t even exist here, and there are people here who don’t exist where you live. Hell, I might not exist there. Or I could be a girl. Or two people. Beauty of the concept, really.”

 

Scott started working on his computer, digging through the archives, looking for any hints on what to do with his new guest.

“Make yourself at home,” He told her “but if you don’t know what it is, don’t touch it.”

Instead, Skye plopped on the couch in tears.

“I’m never gonna see her again, am I? Never gonna hold her. Hold our baby. Hear it call me mommy…”

Scott got up and walked over to her.

“I wouldn’t say that.” he said, sitting down next to her and putting his hand on her shoulder. “Look, I know some folks who are pretty resourceful with what others would deem the impossible. I’m gonna give them a call and we will see what we come up with.” He offered his hand to help her up “I promise you will see your Jemma again, even if we have to move heaven and earth to do so. Come on let’s get you someplace comfortable.”

He led the frightened young solider down to an old office space a few rooms down the hall from his. He’d been using it to store old furniture and there were some big comfy chairs in there.

“Here,” Scott said as he put down a glass of water on a table next to her. “There’s a fountain in the hall if you want more.”

 

He returned to his office and activated the video com system, trying to call back to base

The link connected and he was greeted with the faces of Coulson along with Melinda May.

“Agent Riley? Is something wrong?” May asked

“Sirs, I’ve got an issue with the package… Not only is it an 0-8-4, it brought a friend. I’m going to need your crew here yesterday. I am way out my league on this. I don’t know what in God’s name I am doing.”

“Why?” Coulson asked

“ I know all you guys been through. Loki, Garret, Ward, zombie ward, the ghosts, the framework, time travel but you’re not going to believe me without seeing this for yourselves....”

“Surprise us.” she replied

“OK, the machine that Mack and Daisy brought lit up, threw lighting around like Thor, and now I’m stuck babysitting a quantum duplicate of Daisy from a parallel universe and I don’t have the slightest clue how to send her home…”

The agents looked at each other for a few moments before Coulson replied “Well… that’s new…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The "omniverse" is a term that arose from the original Exiles comic, the idea that a "multiverse" is still to limited a name.
> 
> There is only one Omniverse. It contains every single reality you can imagine, inclusing our own. Marvel, DC, Star Trek, Doctor who, Soap operas, anime, Harry Potter, Garfield... EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING.


	3. Meeting People

About an hour later, two quinjets were landing in the bay. One carried Daisy and Mack and had only just turned around, the other carried Coulson, May, Fitz and Simmons.

“You have no idea how happy I am to see you all” Scott told them as they gathered in his office.

“You know you’re always welcome back at the lighthouse” Jemma said “You really didn’t need to go through all this to get us to come visit.”

“Yeah thanks… this is kinda serious” he said, pointing to the security monitor.

 “So she just appeared out of nowhere, in a locked room?” Mack asked, half amazed and half confused.

“Yep…” Scott said in a drawn out fashion.

 “How much detail did you get out of her to come to the conclusion she’s from a parallel Earth?” Fitz asked.

“Well, between the screaming and the sobbing she did mention some personal facts that quite obviously didn’t sync up. Such as still calling herself Skye and not knowing her name is actually Daisy”

“Well, step one is to examine the machine.” Fitz said. “Might provide some clues”

“Right downstairs, I left the door unlocked.” Scott said. Fitz, Jemma, Mack and Daisy went down to examin the device.

 

 

“What other sort of information did she give you?” coulson asked.

 “Well, for starters, she’s a lesbian. I know our Daisy says she’s bi-sexual…”

“wait” coulson stopped him “That doesn’t fit…”

“She mentioned it to me after…. Well… you know…”

“Nevermind… go on.”

Scott took a deep breath…

“Daisy is bi but to the best of my knowledge has only dated guys. Simmons, on the other has never shown any known attraction to other women short of how she reacted around Agent Morse after that little Great Escape the two pulled off from that Hydra lab” Coulson gave the younger agent another look “How do you know all this?”

“Hey, I worked at the Playground for more than three years before the May-1000 blew it up. I saw how she was acting just like everyone else did… Anyway, our guest said her name was Skye Simmons and that Jemma Simmons is her wife. I’m guessing this version never met her father, so she doesn’t know her real name and took Jemma’s last name when they got married. She didn’t try to quake me into the wall to escape, which would be Daisy’s first move, so ether she’s not an Inhuman, has not undergone Terrigenesis  or has different powers. She’s also in the military, a US Army second lieutenant judging by the rank pins on her collar. And the fact she claimed to work for an agency that hasn’t existed since the 1940s, run by a guy who’s been dead for several years and was not winning any popularity contests…”

“There was one other thing. She mentioned my computer as being ‘contraband technology’ and ‘Unauthorized research work.’ I’ve got a hunch that something is seriously wrong on the other side of the mirror. I think it best if I talk to her first, introduce her to you. May, when the others come back up, send them down to follow us. I’m gonna motion for each of the others slowly aftwards. If we can get her to tell us more, we might be able to figure out how that machine works and send her back. ”

 

 

Scott knocked on the door before opening it. Skye was seated at a desk, having pulled out a pencil and paper and started writing.

“Hey, how are you feeling?”

“Sick” she muttered. “My head is killing me.”

“Whatcha writing?” Scott asked, pulling out another chain and turning it around to sit on backwards.

“A letter to Jemma, apologizing for disappearing, telling her how much I love her and all the sappy nonsense you say in times like this. I don’t know if she’ll ever see it, but it makes me feel better.”

He noticed something else, a photo on the desk. It looked old fashioned and yet still new. He could also see what it was.

“This the two of you?” He asked, picking it up. It was of Skye and her version of Jemma, in matching white dresses.

“Yeah, on our wedding day.” She replied with a sniffle. “I keep it in my wallet”

“You two look lovely together.”

“Thanks” she said, sounding defeated.

“There are some folks here who would like to talk to you… You up for that?”

“Are they here to interrogate me?”

“No, they just want to talk. They’re fellow S.H.I.L.E.D. agents, the friends of mine I mentioned. Just like me, they want nothing more to than to get you back home to your family.” He placed the photo back in front of Skye as he finished, taping on it for emphasis. “Because that’s what S.H.I.E.L.D. does.”

“Remember when I said these are people who take the impossible in stride? They’ve saved the world so many times, just being in the same room as them blows my mind sometimes, nevermind they’re my co-workers, let alone my friends, people I get to say I know. So, do you trust me enough to trust them to help you?”

Skye nodded.

“One last thing” Scott finished with “I need you to remain calm. Some of them you might recognize but you have to remember these are not the people you think they are. Different lives, different paths.”

“Different lives, different paths.” Skye responded like a mantra.  

 

 

Coulson came in first.

“Hello Skye.” Her reaction didn’t show familiarity as he sat down across from her.

“My name’s Phillip J. Coulson, I’m Scott’s boss. He’s told me a lot of what you told him. We’re going try our hardest to get you back home, but first we need to know what happened to you on your end. Did you see anything or touch any…”

Skye leapt to her feet and ran towards the door…

“Jemma!!” she screamed. Skye ran out into the hall and grabbed the other woman in a bear hug. Simmons had leaned around the door frame and Skye had caught a glimpse of her.

“Dai…Skye…” Jemma tried to protest between kisses. “Skye… Please let go of me, you’re hurting me…”

“Oh God…” Skye said in a panic.

“Wait….” Skye said, panicking again showing in her voice as she looked the other woman over “You’re thinne… Back to normal…. What happened? Where’s the baby?”

“Baby?” Jemma asked.

“Skye, this isn’t your Jemma.” Scott explained again, putting his hand on her shoulder again “Here, she’s not your wife and has never been pregnant. Remember what I said, different lives, different paths.”

It was at this point she noticed there were others in the hall.

Her eyes landed on Fitz first “Leopold..?” she asked, with a slight twinge of panic and fear.

“I guess…” The Scotsman muttered. He’d always preferred to be called Leo if anyone had to use his first name.

“Where’s your eye patch? Wait… sorry…”

She didn’t recognize Mack, but when her eyes landed on Melinda May, they went blood red with anger.

“YOU! You CHIMERA BITCH! I’m GONNA KILL YOU!”

Scott grabbed one of her arms, Fitz the other while Mack moved between the two.

“Why is she here? Why’d you let this murdering piece of shit in?”

“Different path…” Scott repeated… “Different path… Our May is one of the good guys. She’s SHIELD through and through.”

“Different lives, different paths… Different lives, different paths…” Skye panted “I’m really sorry. I can’t help it. That face, all I can see is the glee she had when she tortured me… The fire…” At that, May stepped back a few feet and Skye winced in pain again.

Coulson brought out the glass of water Skye had been drinking from. She gulped it down and took some slow and deep breaths. It was at this point some footsteps started to echo behind her.

Skye Simmons turned around, smack into Daisy Johnson.

“No fucking way….” The two doppelgangers said to each other.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chloe Bennet has gone on record she considers Daisy to be Bi-sexual.
> 
> Good enough for me.


	4. Questions and Answers

What followed was a few moments of the prerequisite “Duck Soup Mirror Scene” cliché between the two look alike young women. Each poking the other, looking each other over and walking in circles. There were a few differences. Daisy’s hair was at the usual length she’d had it in recently, whereas Skye’s was longer, but done up. Skye was still in her army uniform while Daisy was in jeans and a T-shirt. Skye was also in heals while Daisy was in Chuck Taylors so they were not at the same eye height.

“Now do you believe me Lt. Simmons?” Jemma and Daisy both reacted to the use of “Simmons”.

“I guess I don’t have much choice…” She turned to her counterpart “… So… How did you end up a ‘Daisy’?”

“I think the two of you have some talking to do?” Jemma interjected.

 

The others watched the security camera feed from Scott’s desk, bouncing back and forth with ideas of how the girl from the other world had arrived there and what were they going to do with her. The two look-alikes were just sitting there awkwardly staring each other down.

“She could be an LMD” May asserted. “Lot of stuff Aida and Ivanov stole is still unaccounted for…”

Scott shook his head “That through crossed my mind. But when I disarmed her, the gun nicked a relatively new looking wound on her finger, and LMDs don’t bleed.”

“What do we do if we can’t find a ‘return to sender’ button?” Fitz asked  
“Culture shock alone might drive her nuts.” Mack said “Remember what happened with Rodgers when he woke up?”

“I think the shock of not seeing her wife and child again would be even worse.” Simmons added

“I’m gonna see if she’s hungry.” Scott said, excusing himself.

 

Skye was sitting there, just kind of staring at Daisy. “How are we doing? Brought you something to eat” Scott said, entering with a microwavable soup bowl.

“It’s Clam chowder, all I had left. Today was supposed be grocery day…”

Skye took one spoonful, and her eyes lit up, followed by another and another. Within moments she gobbled up the whole thing.

“This tastes so good!”

“That’s $2.99 instant crap I keep lying around when I don’t have anything else…”

“What’s that?” Skye asked, pointing to a small lump on the bottom.

Scott poked at it with his finger, lifted it into his mouth and gave it a taste. “Bit of clam meat.”

“clam… meat? That has real meat?” She stood up and started for the door “Please tell me there’s more!”

“Yes, I have one or two more left.” He said, grabbing her by the shoulders and sitting her back down “Just take a deep breath and sit back down. We left you here with Daisy so you could talk about yourselves to each other and you’re just sitting here. Daisy, just tell her your story.”

“Well I…”the SHIELD agent stammered “I don’t know where to start.”

“How about the _literal_ beginning…” He said “Skye doesn’t know her personal history.”

“Well” she began “I… or we… were born July 2, 1988…”

“88…”Skye Interrupted “I’m 30?”

Daisy chuckled “That’s almost exactly what I said when I found out. Our father’s name was Calvin Johnson, here at least he was a doctor, and our mother’s name was Jiayang.”

“What kind of name is that?” Skye asked

“It’s Chinese actually… We’re half Chinese. I was actually born in China. We, or atleast I, am also an Inhuman. We’re both Inhumans” Daisy finished, motioning to her and Scott to emphises she was referring to Scott and herself.

“No” Scott corrected her “I don’t know what the heck I am. My family is Inhuman, yes, but my powers didn’t come from Terrigenesis as far as I know because I’ve never gone through it”

“This is just easier. Your family is Inhuman, you’ve got powers. Just say you’re Inhuman. You don’t have to go into full details every time someone asks. You ramble on too much sometimes. Besides… you were affected two…”

“OH! Here we go, finally, you DO want to talk about it…” Scott yelled, turning towards her

“Yeah I want to talk about it, how can we not?” Daisy yelled and stood up.

“We’ve seen each other a few times since and yet not one mention of it.”

“This isn’t something you just bring up.”

“You just did…”

“Um” Skye asked “Are you two, like, a couple?”

“No” the two agents said, a still facing each other. They quickly turned their backs to Skye.

“Full disclosure?” Daisy asked

Scott gave a small sigh before saying “Not much of a choice at this point…”

The two awkwardly turned to face Skye, both taking deep breaths

“We had sex…” Daisy started

“Once. Three months ago” Scott added.

“We didn’t plan on it…”

“We were kinda forced to by some sick little brat….

 “She could command other inhumans to do what she wanted them to…”

“and in our case was a weekend as her personal living dolls.”

“But while she could order our bodies around…”

“We kinda had to sit back and ride it out…”

“It was like being drugged…”

“We had an idea of what was going on, but it was hazy…”

“The effects were only temporary, though…”

“And we came back to full control during, well you know…”

 

All Skye could muster was an “ewww” followed by “Wait…what’s an Inhuman? Are you guys, like aliens or something? Wait, if you’re me then, does that mean I’m an alien?!?”

The pair shared another awkward look, and started to explain.

“Well” Daisy started “Thousands of years ago, some aliens called the Kree were fighting a war. They needed troops, so they got the idea they would find primitive planets and modify the natives into living weapons. And one of those planets was Earth. They thought the plan failed and left, but it actually worked. Scott and I are descended from some of the people the Kree experimented on. When we are exposed to a substance called Terrigen, we get special powers, like this.”

Daisy proceded to create small vibrations in the table causing the soup bowl and water glass to dance around.

“You’ve already seen what I can do” Scott added, telekinetically pulling the glass to himself. “And please stop trying to break my stuff…”

“The abilities vary from person to person.” Daisy continued “I’ve met people who have all sorts of abilities. Teleportation, precognition, making copies of themselves, flying… Our mother was practically immortal and another agent we work with can move at super speed.”

“You left out one detail “Scott said.

Daisy shot him a look and then gave him a smack in the gut “Hey, office gossip” he said defensively “I swear I’ve never read them. Scouts’ honor.”

“You were never a scout…”

“Ok fair but still…”

Daisy begrudgingly accepted that and turned back to her twin “Right… I started using my powers in public and basically, I kinda became a superhero vigilante for a while. The media people gave me the nickname ‘Quake.’ I became kinda famous.”

“That actually sounds kinda cool.” Skye said

“You’d think… So… Now that we’re all in a sharing mood, why don’t you tell us about yourself?” Daisy asked Skye, with the loads both of her and Scott’s awkward “friendship” and their personal histories off their backs.

“Well, I grew up in an orphanage in Los Angeles. Because of a fire they had no detailed records on when I arrived there so I had no idea when that happened. When I was what I thought was sixteen I ran away. Lived on the streets for a while, moved around a lot. Got jobs where I could find them. Eventually I got into a pretty big fight with some asshole in a bar who couldn’t take “I’m not attracted to guys” as an answer when he tried to hit on me. Smashed him up pretty damn good, they had him in court in a body cast. Judge gave me the options of prison or the military. I took the army. They gave me a massive series of tests and when it was all said and done, I was offered the job with SSR. First day on the job, I meet my Jemma. She’s an MD, did my physical. We hit it off, went for drinks that night at the base cantina, one thing leads to another and we end up saying “I Do” a few months later. We’ve been married six years now. Last thing I remember was cleaning out an old store room at base with her when she whelped in pain, saying she was sure she’d gone into labor. I had a weird looking lamp in my hands that was stuck in the wall, the lights flicker and next thing I know I’m in the room with you pointing a gun at me.”

“ICER” Scott corrected “It’s a stun gun. Instead of lead, the rounds carry a toxin that can temporarily paralyze.” He pulled the spare clip of ICER rounds off his belt and removed a bullet to show her.

“Why were you cleaning out a store room that early?”

“Jemma and I are a rarity among SSR personal. Few are married and even fewer have kids and we’re the only ones married to another SSR member. The director offered us the store room as larger quarters so we could raise our baby. Neither of us could sleep, and we just decided to do something constructive.”

“What do you normally do?”

“I’m Director Garret’s assistant. I basically do everything for him. He even sort leaves me in charge when he’s out of the office. I’m preaty sure you probably do the same thing for…”

“I’m a field agent.” Daisy interrupted.

“Technically me two” Scott added “I just don’t get out much.”

 “Wow… You…Have either of you ever killed anyone?”

Daisy thought for a moment. “Yes, but they were all terrible, terrible people.”

“I once used my powers to drop a tanker truck onto of a building full of mercenaries and terrorist. And I shot a few of them before hand” Scott added “Other than that most of my takedowns have been more in the less-than-lethal category.”

“So how did you end up in SHIELD?” Skye asked her counterpart.

“Much like you I grew up thinking I was an orphan. By my early 20s I was living in a van, oddly also in LA. I was a hacktivist”

“A what?” Skye interrupted

“Hacker activist” Daisy elaborated “I was using my computer skills to try to change the world for the better, or at least I thought I was. SHIELD, more specifically Coulson, found me one day after I’d found a guy who’d been the victim of experimentation by some really nasty people. He brought me on as a consultant and I became part of his team. We had some ups and downs, but they eventually made me a full SHIELD agent. SHIELD has become my life, my family. Coulson and May are the closest thing to an actual parents I’ve ever had.”

“How can a computer change the world?” Skye asked, seemingly ignoring the rest of what Daisy had just said.

“You’d be surprised what a laptop and an internet connection can do.”

Skye didn’t respond to ether of these words.

“Well, it’s more what the person using it does “Scott added in “Computer is only as smart as the person using it’ and all that.”

“Computers do calculations.” Skye said. “They take out the tediousness of doing lots of math.”

“Well, that was what they were created for, but with time, they became better.” Scott told her.

“Better?”

“Smaller, faster, smarter… What once took a whole building now fits into a person’s pockets” Daisy said, as the two agents both pulled out their smart phones.

“We built machines that took men to the moon with less computing power than these things.” Scott said, taking a picture of Skye with his phone, and then handing it to her to show her.

“You mean… you don’t have the Scientific Regulation and Control Act?” Skye asked, looking like someone just told her Santa Claus wasn’t real. “What happened to President Rogers? How could he have allowed this to happen?”


	5. Comparing Notes

Scott marched back up to his office, leading Skye by the elbow. He blew past the others and made for the landing bay. The sun had to have been up by now, and he brought the scared young woman to an emergency door on the far corner of the large room.

“Agent Riley…” Coulson started, having followed them.

“Sir, I’ll explain in a second. Right now, I have to do this.” Scott said, as he unlocked the door and pushed it open, leading Skye onto the roof of the building.

“Recognize anything across the river?” Scott asked

“Is that…” Skye started

“The Empire State Building? Yes, yes it is. Welcome to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Told you this is New York.”

“But what are all those other buildings?”

“Those ‘other’ buildings are 70 years of development. The big one to the south is One World Trade Center. At one thousand, seven hundred and seventy six feet to the tip top, it’s the tallest building in the western hemisphere. Over there is the Stark Building, right next to Grand Central. The Avengers used to work out of it, then things got, well it’s a long story.  Then, to the north, we have 432 Park Ave off by itself there; you can actually look down onto the top of the ESB from there. And if you look, even Downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City now have their own skylines of condos and office buildings.”

“Why would he allow the city to change so much? If he...” Skye started before Scott interupped, trying to stay calm “I told you, he was frozen in the arctic for most of the 20th century. He was the one on that plane. He saved the world. To all those people out there he’s still just ‘Captain America’. He never had the chance to run because he was frozen before Roosevelt died.”

“So… He’s dead?”

“No, he was just sleeping. And I’m not being factious or sarcastic, when SHIELD defrosted him, he woke up. 70 years on ice and then went right back into being a hero. You get some fresh air, Daisy will stay with you, I’ll be back in a second.”

 

“I got her to spill the beans on everything.” Scott told Coulson and company, “Sir, would you like to remind everyone what happened to Steve Rogers on his last mission during the war?”

“He crashed that giant bomber that Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull, had sent to attack America.” Coulson said “He was frozen in the Arctic until SHIELD thawed him out. I was there when it happened.”

“Right, now, here’s where things get interesting. In Skye’s world, he wasn’t on that plane. Because in that world, Hydra found Sergeant James Barns at the bottom of that canyon a whole lot sooner and turned him against Captain Rogers during the war. They made him into a sort of prototype version of the Winter Solider, using much the same techniques like they used on people like poor Agent Palmas.

“When Rogers and the SSR stormed Schmidt’s base, Barnes was there, waiting for him. And they were still fighting when the plane took off. On that Earth, it was Agent Peggy Carter and Howard Stark who ended up on the plane. They caused it to crash. As it was the Eskine Serum that saved Rogers here, they unfortunately died. In his grief, Rogers stormed Berlin and killed Hitler himself. He ended the war in Europe a good six months early. The atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima and the threat of Rogers by himself was sufficient to convince Japan to surrender without the second bomb at Nagasaki or the Soviet invasion of Manchuria.”

“So Rogers didn’t end up frozen…” Coulson muttered “interesting.”

“But the damage to his psyche was enormous. He was forced to kill Bucky. He’d lost the woman he loved and his best friend, along with the mentorship of Howard Stark. Once he saw what the atom bomb could do, he absolutely lost it. He ran for president in 1948 without any external backing, won and has held the job ever since.

“The worst part of all of this, the man blamed science and scientists for everything that had gone wrong in the world. Rodgers threw everyone who worked on the Manhattan project in jail save Albert Einstein since he was the only one who tried to stop Truman from using the bomb. 

He’s used his influence and the fear he instilled in people to put a stop to nearly all technological and scientific advancements. No space program, no personal computers, restricted medical development. Anyone here ever play the ‘Fallout’ franchise? It’s set in a world where they didn’t develop the transistor, and everything got stuck in a 1950s “THE FUTURE” vibe for more than a century until the US and China got into a nuclear war in 2077. From what I can tell, Rogers enforced much the same in his world. Kids are still watching westerns on black and white TVs. The only area they seemed to advance was civil rights.”

“Steven Rogers was always the non-judgemental type” Coulson added in. “He saw the good in everyone.”

“He completely ended segregation immediately after taking office and passed universal civil rights act by 1950. He even legalized same-sex marriage in 1977 after one of his aids talked to him about it. But at the same time, Congress is little more than a rubber stamp on his agenda, and the Supreme Court hasn’t heard a case in ages.”

 

“What’s this 'Chimera' group Skye mentioned?” May asked

“To quote our guest; ‘A terrorist organization that wants nothing more that the ending of our way of life and everything the SSR stands for’. The best rough translation I got from talking to her is ‘Mensa meets the IRA’. They would seem to be mostly intellectuals who want to restore the progress of the human race along with anyone Rogers has pissed off, which we can assume is quite a lot of people. When Skye told me my computer was contraband, it was because she thought it was a color TV, which are controlled under the idea of restriction of using them for intelligence gathering. She didn’t understand microprocessors; the idea of cell phones, let alone a smart phone, blew her mind and when she saw that poster of the helicarrier I have in the hallway I think she nearly fainted.”

“Why did you decide to show her the city?” Couslon asked

“Because before she got zapped here, she was in the basement of SSR headquarters, which they built in the exact same spot that we built the Triskelion. I wanted to prove to her she wasn’t in Washington DC.”

At this point, Skye and Daisy entered the room, Daisy seemingly having calmed down her double.

“Ok. I told you everything.” Skye said “Now it’s time to keep up your end of the bargin.”

The others looked at Scott.

“I promised her more clam chowder…” He said sheepishly.


	6. Lunchtime Revelations

“You mean there are no restrictions on meat consumption? There’s no rationing? You can eat what you want, when you want?” Skye asked.

She, Daisy, Scott, Simmons and Fitz had just sat down in a nearby McDonalds. The place had been renovated recently and if you were going to eat in they’d bring your food to your table.

“Does this place have good clam chowder?” Skye asked.

“No, it’s McDonalds... It’s fast food… Hamburgers… “Daisy told her, marveling to herself she actually had to explain McDonalds of all things to someone.

The look on Skye’s face made it seem like she’d died and gone to food heaven.

“Hamburgers? REAL hamburgers? Hamburgers made of actual cow meat?”

The staff members bought their food and Skye went to town.

“You eat like you’ve been starved all your life.” Fitz pointed out.

“It’s just” Skye said, between mouthfuls of French fries “Ever since the weather went nuts, good food has been a luxury, but that was before I was even born. It’s mostly been easy to grow, hardy stuff. Kale, grains, seaweed, stuff like that. There’s plenty of ration bars, though. And my Jemma has had me on some new vitamins the last few months.”

“That explains the coffee.” Scott said, remembering when he’d offered Skye some when she first showed up. “Coffee plants are fragile and only grown in certain areas.”

“Skye?” Daisy asked “I don’t mean to be intrusive, but can I ask you something personal?”

“Sure” her twin said with a chicken mcnugget in her mouth.

“The baby your wife Jemma is carrying. Do you mind if I ask… Who’s the biological father?”

Skye didn’t seem bothered by the question. “Oh… It’s a friend from the SSR. He’s in charge of the armory. Really, really nice guy. He’s one of those people pleasers who want to be everyone’s friend. His name’s Grant. Grant Ward.”

Agent Daisy Johnson, the woman known to the world as the hero super spy Quake, was suddenly making a bee-line to the bathroom clutching her mouth and gagging. The other three sat there, eyes wide in stunned silence.

“Was it something I said?” Skye said, still eating.

Fitz, Scott and Jemma just sat there, all sharing “you wanna tell her?” looks.

“Skye,” Jemma said with some nervousness in her voice, choosing to be the one to speak “The Grant Ward we knew was Hydra. He started off as a mole in S.H.I.E.L.D. He tried to be our friend, saved our lives a few times, especially mine. He and Daisy even fell in love… but, once the truth got out, he also tried to kill us several times. He stranded Fitz and I at the bottom of the ocean. He tortured a good friend of ours, a woman I owe my life to. He caused us so much pain and suffering. But that’s in the past. He’s dead now. Good riddance…” Jemma decided to leave out the part about Hive taking over his body and brainwashing Daisy and nearly taking over the world or being that cause of Lincoln’s death.

By this point Daisy had returned, whipping her face with a napkin.

“You OK?” Scott asked

“I’m Sorry” Skye said.

“It’s not your fault, you didn’t know.” Daisy told her.

They sat quietly while they finished their food. They were about ready to leave when Daisy’s phone rang. It was May.

“Daisy, we just got word in from Elena, we’ve got an emergency. Some details on a deal involving R1. Mack and I are going to leave in the one Quinjet, head back to Zephyr One and look into this while Coulson heads back to base in the other. I want you four to keep an eye on Skye.”

“You sure you want to leave me out on this?”

“R1 might have a few of your LMD copies still in storage. Last thing we need is to try and figure out which one of you is real in an emergency. We’re already plus one in the “you” department today...”

Daisy hung up and explained to the others what she’d just been told. “I think we just all got the day off…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> McDonalds such as what is described above exist. The one near my job has been operating that way since the end of last October.
> 
> instead of talking to a person, you can order on a touch screen kiosk, take a plastic number sign and go sit down.


	7. Skye's Day Out

“WOOOOOH! YEAH!” Skye yelled into the wind

“Sit down or I’m turning this car around.” Scott yelled over his shoulder “You act like you’ve never ridden in a convertible before.”

“Nope! Not like this! They don’t let us drive this fast!”

“I’m barely doing 50! Someone sit her back down!”

Daisy and Fitz both reached up and yanked the girl between them back down into the back seat and put her seatbelt back on.

“Skye” Scott yelled “I just got this car. I wish to emphasize to you it’s not a company car, it’s my personal property. If you get hurt, it’s gonna be hell on my insurance premiums. So calm down and stay seated, please.”

The group had figured that the best thing for Skye was to get her out into some fresh air, not cooping her up back in the museum. Fortunately, Scott had just taken delivery of a new car that was big enough for them to all fit in (barely) and, after some jockeying and squeezing, the five were out and about. They were at that moment cruising down the Belt Parkway around the south end of Brooklyn.

“One thing” Skye asked, “why is the car so quiet? I can’t hear the engine. And I haven’t seen you shift gears.”

“It’s a bit of a kit bash.” Scott answered “The body is a Ford Mustang, the poster child of the muscle car, but I took out the drive train hardware and replaced it with the gear from some wrecked Tesla roadsters. It’s completely electricly driven, it doesn’t have an engine or a transmission.”

“How environmentally sensible of you.” Jemma said matter-of-factly.

“Nope, I did it so I could do this” He said, flooring it “and no one would hear me coming. Great for sneaking up on folks.”

 

“OOHH! OOHH! Coney Island!” Skye started yelling as they passed an exit sign “Can we go, please please please! I’ve always wanted to go but I’ve never been. My Jemma doesn’t like rollercoasters and won’t let me go on them.”

“OK, you are so off sugar and caffeine.” Daisy said to her twin.

“Well this is supposed to be for her. Maybe this will make her feel better.” Jemma said from the passenger seat.

“All right…” Scott said, begrudidly, turning the car towards the exit ramp.

“Coney Island! Coney Island! Coney Island!” Skye sang over and over again as they crossed a bridge over the creek.

 

“WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO THIS PLACE!?!” Skye screamed.

She was standing on the sidewalk expecting an entrance to an amusement park. Instead, she was rattling the gates of a stadium while Scott tried to pull her away from making any more of a scene and the others just stood back by the car pretending not to know her.

“It’s a minor league baseball stadium, MCU Park” Scott explained “Nice place to watch a ball game.”

“Where’s _Steeplechase_ Park?” She asked.

“Gone. It’s been gone for years.” He said, straining to pull the girl back before security came.

“WHY?” She screamed. “I’ve always wanted to come here, but it’s just houses and shit now!”

Scott finally pulled her off the fence and spun her around.

“Skye… Look at me. Please do me a huge favor and STOP JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS! It will make your stay here a whole lot easier for all of us.”

“Right. I’m Sorry. I don’t know what got into me.”

“Yes, lots of the old rides and parks are gone. The place kinda sucked in the 70s and 80s. That doesn’t mean they’re all gone. I only parked here because I found a spot here. Everything you want is just a few blocks away. The Cyclone is still here. The Wonder Wheel is still here. Bumper cars, go-karts, a log flume.” The sound of people screaming echoed from behind the ballpark “and the Thunderbolt 2.0.”

He pulled his wallet out and gave her some money “$40. This should be plenty, but if you need more let me know.”

“YES! Thank you!” Skye shouted as she took the money, gave Scott a hug and started running down the block… Away from the rides.

“Oh for fuck’s sake THE OTHER WAY!” Scott yelled after her.

“Does anyone suddenly get the feeling we’re babysitting a two year old?” Jemma asked Fitz and Daisy as they started to follow.

 

A couple of hours later Skye was sitting on the boardwalk, merrily eating her first real hot dog and looking out at the ocean. The others were standing behind her on the other side of the walkway.

“This is big Scott” Fitz said “You got Coulson to leave the base. He’s barely left his office since he got back.”

“Back?” Scott asked “Back from where?”

“We’ll explain later” Daisy said.

“She seems to be feeling better” Jemma observed.

“Today is so going on my monthly expense report.” Scott complained looking in his near empty wallet “I need to find an ATM. How much do you guys have on you?”

“Will she even want to go back after all this?” Fitz asked. “She seems so happy.”

“Maveth.” Daisy said in reply, reminding the Scotsman how hard he’d pushed himself to get Jemma back when she was sent to an alien planet for six months.

“Touché…” Fitz muttered

Daisy looked back on her look-alike “From what she told me before while out on the fire escape, it sounds like the New York in her world is almost like the Rodger’s personal fiefdom. Nothing is done without his say so. Sounds to me like he turned the whole city into his personal safety blanket from when he was young. No change, not a single thing out of place. Maybe that’s part of all this. The man wants everything in his comfort zone from before the War. From before he changed.”

 “Terrifying” Jemma said.

The other’s nodded in agreement.

“If she’s this happy here, imagine if we took her to some place like Disney World?” Daisy said.

“I’d rather not think about that right now.” Scott said, now looking through Google Maps on his phone. “God, how can this neighborhood not have any banks?”

“Why are you so worried about having money?” Daisy asked.

“I was supposed to go grocery shopping today. I don’t have any food left for one person, let alone five. And I gave Skye the last of my pocket change. So unless you guys don’t mind paying for dinner without me, I need to figure something out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter?
> 
> All so I could make that MCU Park reference. 
> 
> the stadium is home to the Mets' Short season A team the Brooklyn Cyclones and named after it's sponsor, Municipal Credit Union (who have been using the MCU name for a lot longer than Marvel)


	8. Zephyr Zero

After having dragged Skye back to the car after she tried to feed some seagulls and because storm clouds were starting to show on the horizon, they decided it was best they returned to The Museum.

“Did you at least enjoy yourself?” Jemma asked. Scott had wisely left the roof closed, so yelling was no longer necessary and Skye wouldn’t be tempted to try to stand again. 

“Yeah... We don’t get a lot of downtime like that back home. No vacations, no holidays. We’re always on call. Last time I went anywhere with my Jemma was our honeymoon.”

“And you’ve been married for six years now?” Jemma asked “That sounds horrible”

“Well, I mean a long trip. We do get the chance to go out on occasions. Dinner. Movies. I cut a deal with her where we go to a Senator’s game at least once a month. She won’t admit to it but she seems to be learning to like baseball.”

“Senators?” Daisy asked

“Washington’s old American League team” Scott explained “moved to become the Minnesota Twins after the 1960 season. Replacement team with the same name left in the early 70’s for the Dallas-Fort Worth area to become the Texas Rangers. DC didn’t have a major league team till the Nationals came to town in 2005.”

“Old? They left?” Skye asked, once again dumbfounded. “Why would they leave?”

Fortunately for Skye, they’d just hit it the traffic coming off the bridge from Staten Island, so Scott had plenty of time to explain modern baseball.

They returned to base and Scott ordered pizza, the only thing they could afford with their remaining cash supply. Skye proceeded to scarf down nearly an entire pie by herself but they had enough for leftovers.

Fitz, Jemma and Dasiy spent most of dinner regaling Skye with stories of their adventures. How they all met, their first 0-8-4, when Jemma was infected with an alien virus and jumped out of their plane, how they surrived the fall of shield and what happened on Maveth.

“Has anyone heard from Coulson or May in the last few hours?” Jemma asked as they finished cleaning up.

The other three agents shook their heads.

“Maybe we should check in with them” Daisy said.

 

“They were here alright” May said on the screen. “We’ve got a lot of mopping up to do.”

“Any robo-mes?” Dasiy asked

“Fortunately no, but it’s still going to be a risk going forward until we catch her.”

“What should we do?”

“Fitz and Simmons were supposed to have been figuring out that machine anyway by this point, and we promised to get Skye home. We need to know how the machine works and how to control it.”

 

“So, if we’re staying here, where are we going to sleep?” Skye asked.

 “I’ve got plenty of space.” Scott offered

“Scott, no offense, but we’re not sleeping in your broom cupboard of an apartment.” Fitz said.

“Who said I had an apartment? Do I look like I could afford one? I just had to make you guys pay for pizza. I live here. Come on, I’ll show you.”

He led them back into the loading bay, and opened a panel on the wall and entered a code on a keypad inside. The majority of the wall retracted and in its place was a sleek black jet plane in its own hanger bay; its wing’s folded to allow it to fit. It looked like a cross between the SR-71 “Blackbird” spy plane and a Concorde, only scaled down to the size of a gulf stream private jet.

“Officially, this is SHEILD 79203. Unofficially, I’ve come to call it ‘ _Zephyr Zero’_. I’ve been upgrading and modernizing her using Zephyr One as a template, but I haven’t gotten very far. She has four engines, two turbojets and two ramjets, with a maximum registered velocity of around Mach 2.7 but I’m quite sure she can go faster. She’s got a Tititanium-Vibranium alloy hull with a carbon-fiber outer casing. And, my faviote part, it comes with the prototype cloaking system the one used on the Quinjets is based on. Flown properly, she can stay airborne for about 48 hours without refueling. It was built as an executive transport for Director Fury, but was never actually put to use for much the same reason the Boeing C-17 Globemaster Mobile Command Posts like your old ‘Bus’ were retired.”

“Who wants a plane when you can have a Helicarrier?” Fitz finished.

“Exactly. But, I put some spit and polish into her in my free time. Made a few system upgrades. There’s room for everyone inside, let me just go move a few things.”

Skye looked over the machine in amazement. No signs of rivets or even welds, just a smooth, polished skin.

“Too bad she can’t fly…” She said aloud.

“Oh, she’s fully airworthy.” Scott said, sticking his head back out and chucking a bag of laundry down the steps. “Just got her turbojet engines back from a quick overhaul last week.” 

The climbed up into the plane. The interior was almost a scaled down version of the old Bus, minus the briefing room, with a kitchen at the front, work space, a common lounge area with three bunks along the ride side facing forward and a large bedroom/office suite towards the rear. Scott had been living out of the bedroom, but was willing to let FitzSimmons use it, taking a bunk instead. 

 

“So this is set in the past and far away, but it has space ships and robots?” Skye asked as the Stormtroopers invaded the Tantive IV.

In keeping with the theme of the day, “showing Skye what she was missing” they were watching “A New Hope” together.

“Yeah, it’s never really explained but no one really cares that much.” Scott said. “Here he comes. Skye, meet possibly the most famous figure in all of popular culture… I give you, Darth Vader.”

The imposing black suited figure strode into frame, Skye shreaked and lept over the couch.

“I sense a great disturbance in the Force” Daisy said as she and Jemma looked over at the girl, now holding her head again. “You ok?”

“Yeah…” Skye said “That guy’s kinda scary.”

“Wait until you see the other movies.” Fitz said

“Especially episodes two and three.” Scott added “You want terrifying, try watching Haden Christensen act…” he said, shuddering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Much like how the Bus was SHIELD 616 was named after a Marvel Earth, 616 being the main marvel comics timeline, 79203 is the number of yet another earth.
> 
> Long story short, Marvel has connections to the Japanese TV show "Super Sentai" (the show that is edited into Power Rangers), part of the deal that also gave us the Takuya Yamashiro Spider-man TV show and his giant robot Leopardon. 
> 
> Earth 79203 is the earth of "Super Sentai" and it's sister shows "Kamen Rider" and "Metal Heroes".


	9. Confessions

It was very early when Scott heard a knock on his bunk door, rousing him from the semi-coniuos state he’d been in.

“Who’s there?”

“Daisy”

“Who’s the 40th president?”

“Ronald Regan” She stood with her arms crossed.

“I wanted to be sure you were you and not… well the other you.”

“Very funny”

“Well, I try.”

“Well, I can’t sleep. And I’m guessing you can’t ether.”

“You caught me.” He said, sitting up.

“It’s just… can we talk?” She asked him

“That’s what we’re doing, isn’t it.”

“No.. I mean about us. About what happened?”

“We talked earlier, remember. What’s there left to talk about? We did the deed and moved on with our lives.”

“No, I don’t think we have….”

Scott sighed in agreement. “No, you’re right. If we’d moved on, we wouldn’t have been yelling like that. God, how do ‘friends with benefits’ types do this? They sleep with each other like it’s nothing. We get roped into this against our will and we can’t get over it.”

“Before we go any further, I want to know how long you’ve had a crush on me.” She asked him

“You knew?”

“Kinda obvious. Every time I came into your little shop back at the Playground you started stammering and rambling. You have a hard time even looking me in the eyes.”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me…”

“Ok, honesty time. All cards on the table.”

“Sounds fair.”

“Daisy… since I first saw you, to be honest. Way, way back at The Hub. You were pinned to the wall by your bracelet. I though the yelling fit was especially cute.”

“You worked at the Hub?”

“Yes, yes I did. Hell, I had to clean up the mess you two left.”

“The hack I had Simmons do to find Fitz and Ward?”

“Director Fury was both pissed and impressed. He told me he wished they’d found you sooner.”

“Found me?”

“To recruit you as an agent. And I quote, and sanitize ‘What the heck was she doing living in a friggen van in an alley if she was this darn good!?!’ You can fill in the rest.”

“How do you know that? You knew the director personally?”

Scott ran his hands over his face. “Shut the door and press the orange button.”

Daisy did so, and sat down next to him on the bed.

“You know how in the old days, agents had numbered levels?”

Daisy nodded.

“Do you know what my level was?”

“Four I think”

“No, like Fitz-Simmons, I was a five. However, that was only on paper. I was in what was known amongst ourselves as ‘Level Zero.”

Scott at that moment heard a thud followed by muffled whispering. He got up and opened the door. Fitz-Simmons, having been leaning up against the door evesdropping, suddenly found themselves falling forwards onto the floor.

“Yes, Level Zero was real,” Scott told them, deadpan “now go back to sleep.”

The married couple sheepishly got up and walked back to the bedroom.

“Note to self, soundproofing doesn’t work. Where was I?” He said, sitting back down “Level Zero was a sort of a special, unofficial, internal security division, we reported directly to Director Fury. Our job was to look for bad seeds in our various departments. Our security clearance was much higher than it was supposed to be. We were privy to a lot of stuff even the best agents didn’t know. I knew about Project T.A.H.I.T.I. and what happened to Coulson after he died. I knew where the Playground was ahead of time. I knew there was something important on the _Illiad_. When all hell broke loose, not only did I know Fury was still alive, I was with him when they found Fitz and Simmons in the ocean.”

“So you do know Fury personally.”

“What can I say?  I really don’t like to toot my horn, but I’m a legacy.”

“Your parents were in SHIELD?”

“And my grandfather, Kent Riley. He was an early agent. Knew both Howard Stark and Peggy Carter personally. Trained under the surviving Howling Commandos. Never stops talking about it… When I told him I was joining up, he was over the moon. When I said I was assigned to IT, he didn’t speak to me for two weeks. He nearly missed seeing me off to the academy…”

“Wow. That’s harsh.”

“He kinda looks down on anyone not in the field. He’s old, they get that way. I should introduce you two sometime, he’d go on about how field work went in his day till your ears bleed. When I told him I’d been made a field agent, he actually, honest to God, fainted.”

“Wow… Do you mind if I ask? Is he?”

“He’s positive for the genes but never underwent the process.”

“Mom and Dad”

He shook his head. “same. I’m of Inhuman heritage on both sides, but the only members of the family with powers are myself and Barty, and he’s my third cousin.”

“Daisy, you are the only person aside from Fury and Coulson in the whole world who knows all this now. I never even told Director Mace, partly because I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him and you’ve seen how far I can throw things. You have to promise me you will do your absolute to keep this to yourself.”

She nodded before asking “Was May Level Zero? She was keeping track of Coulson.”

“No, she was just reporting back to Fury as more of a babysitter. We looked after whole departments.”

“Wow… So you spied on spies.”

“Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodies?” he said “Who watches the watchmen?’ Basically we were supposed to be Fury’s eyes and ears in the rank and file. Problem was, Hydra was a step ahead of him. The others all died before they began their assault. I was the only one to survive. Can I tell you something a bit personal? I actually spent those weeks, on the run with Fury and the others, trying to get away from General Talbot and company, hoping you were OK. Same when you guys disapaeared into the future, when I was trying to keep one step ahead of Hale and that Darth Emo of a daughter of her’s... When Hive grabbed you, I wanted nothing more than to go chase down and kill the son of bitch myself. But I knew there was a risk he’d take me two.”

“Why have you never said anything about how you felt before?”

“I still was just a repair technician. As a Zero, I worked for Fury personally. Once he went completely dark, I was just another SHIELD agent, my job was to fix things. You spent your time chasing down bad guys, I spent mine chasing down faulty wiring. I didn’t think you’d pay attention to someone like me. I didn’t think I could compete with guys like Lincoln. Hell, when Coulson asked me what I wanted for going on the mission to save Barty, I was only kidding when I asked for a date with you. I was testing him on how serious the situation was. I thought he would offer me double the money I asked for or a better promotion. Honestly, all I really wanted was full field agent status without having to spill the beans to anyone else. I didn’t think he’d actually set me up with you.”

“Wait, what? I went out with you because you asked. Remember? We were walking away from the scene and you said ‘Wanna grab a drink? I know a great little hole in the wall with some awesome pinball machines.”

“I thought you…So, If I’d just…”

“Maybe… I mean, once I got to know you as more than ‘the cute guy downstairs I take my laptop to when I accidently quake it to bits and don’t have time to fix it myself’. I do have to admit, watching you throw that tanker truck across the parking lot… That was pretty cool.”

“Coming from you, I’m a bit speechless.”

The two sat silently for a few moments.

“You know,” Scott told her “you’ve spent a lot of time getting me to open up without contributing.”

“Well, I mean, you know my story. Everyone does. I just wanted to know you better. I guess... There were a lot of holes in my search of your background.”

“You were goggling me, weren’t you…”

 “I haven’t had a lot of luck with guys. Most of them had issues at best and were downright psychotic at worst. OK? I wanted to know the kind of guy I had been unwillingly hooked up with in case….”

“In case?” Scott asked, puzzled.

“I…” She stammered,

“We agreed, Cards on the table” Scott reminded her.

“My period was late the next month.” She said “I was worried I was pregnant.”

Scott sat there for a minute, before simply saying “I see. You wanted to be sure you didn’t have an asshole, or worse, for a baby daddy…”

“I don’t mean…” She started.

“No. No. I understand completely. That’s fair.”

 “I know we both… want to know if… If what happened… between us… meant something.” She said, still stammering to the point of tears.

“It probably doesn’t.”

“Then why didn’t we stop?”

“We were caught up in the moment. We were so… aroused we didn’t realize we were back to normal until afterwards…”

“Did we? Or did we continue because we enjoyed it? Because we wanted it.”

“I don’t know.”

“I think we both know one way to find out…”

“I guess so…”

The two then threw themselves at each other.

 

Several hours later...

“Scott… Scott… wake up” a voice yelled, rousing him from his sleep. He climbed out of bed, tossed on his pants and opened the door. Jemma was standing there in a bathrobe. “It’s Daisy, she’s not here, and her bed is cold like she never slept in it. She…”

It was at this point Jemma noticed Daisy, naked and groggily waking up in Scott’s bed, followed by noticing both of their clothes strewn on the floor. “OH… Oh God… Ok… Well never mind…” And she scurried off.

“What was that?” Daisy asked, yawning.

“Your overprotective best friend…”

He sat down on the bed. She pulled herself up to him and the two kissed again.

“You find any answers?” She asked

“No, how about you?”

“Nope. Maybe we should try looking again sometime…” She said, wrapping the blanket around herself, picking up her stuff and heading for her bunk.

At this point, Skye appeared, clutching her head again. “Holy Crap… did you guys just…?”

“You know,” Scott said deadpan “if we ever find a way to go to your reality, I am so gonna pester your wife about your sex life…”


	10. Little Blue Terror

“This thing just doesn’t make any sense.” Fitz yelled while smacking the console. The girls had taken Scott’s car to get Skye some clothes since she couldn’t live in her uniform. Fitz and Scott were examining the machine that had assumedly brought Skye to their world.

“Dude, hitting it an’t gonna help.” Scott replied. “With our luck that will produce another Daisy or two.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Fitz said.

“You heard?”

“From what I could piece together, Jemma was babbling a bit.” Fitz said. “It’s nice to see her smiling again.”

“It’s nice to see her anywhere near you without wanting to kill you..”

“Let’s just say you missed quite a lot while on that assignment.” Fitz said.

“I tend to. I’m never around when the real fun happens. I survived the blowing up of the Playground because I was on a beer run. I missed the whole mess in the Lighthouse because I was chasing down Barty, not realizing how far up shit’s creek I was. Want to know how I survived the first battle with Hydra four years ago?”

“How?”

“It’s because I was stuck changing planes in Phoenix. They wouldn’t spring for a direct flight. So while Captain Rogers was crashing the Insight Carriers into the Triskellion, I was sitting at a Pizza Hut in Phoenix Sky Harbor waiting for my connecting flight. I guess in that case, someone’s cheepness actually might have saved my bacon. Hey, by the way, I’ve been meaning to ask, whatever happened to that Deke guy?”

“Um…I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Yeah, sorry, I know you didn’t like him.”

“It’s ok.” Fitz sighed in frustration. “This machine is impossible. Nothing is labeled, the screen is fried beyond repair, and I have no clue what this blub thing is supposed to be. You know, I spoke to a contact at British Intelligence. They found this thing in a sealed off shaft in an abandoned London Underground station… but look at that.” He said, pointing his flashlight at the raised control panel.

“Which station?” Scott asked

“Does it matter? Look!” Fitz says

“Well, considering many old underground stations were used during the war for various purposes. If we knew which station we could know who was using it and possibly how it got there…” Scott paused for a second before sheepishly admitting “And I.. um… happen to… like… trains...”

Fitz looked up at him with a scowl “Will you stop with your anorak train spotter babbling and just bloody look already!”

“Alright, alright, don’t get… “Scott stopped himself mid sentence “How long ago was that tunnel sealed again?”

“1947, 1949 at the latest”

“And that looks waaay too much like a circuit board with microprocessors …Wait, what’s this box for..?” Scott asked, pointing to a square component in the machine.

There was a cover on the side facing them. They popped it off, revealing a burned out, blue, square object.

“No way…” They said to each other while backing away slowly.

“We better call the boss man…” Scott said “How should we move that? Should we even bring it up?”

“Can’t you move it? You know…” Fitz asked.

“I don’t even want to be in the same time zone as that thing.” Scott yelled “Two things about my powers. First, they require focus, which is not something I have in spades right now, one false thought and who knows that it would do to that thing. Second is when I use them, I interact with the entire object. I don’t know what that would ether.”

“Maybe we should make the call from in here.”

“You want to undo that rat’s nest of cables and drag my computer down here, be my guest. This room is shielded, I don’t know if you noticed but the wifi doesn’t work in here.”

“I might have a plan B. what do you have in the way of utensils in the kitchen?”

 

“When we saw the machine, we assumed it was a product of Howard Stark.” Scott explained to coulson via a video call. “What we didn’t consider… was which Howard Stark.”

Coulson’s brow furrowed on the screen for a moment.

“You’re saying the machine came from another universe aside from ours and Skye’s? What makes you think that?”

“This” He said carefully holding up a pair of salad tongs…

Holding the charred remains of the Tesseract.

 

About an hour later, the girls returned from their shopping trip to find the two men staring at the burnt blue box on a table. Skye had ear buds in and was dancing and singing along to music playing on Daisy’s phone and didn’t notice what was going on at first.  Jemma recognized it immediately.

“Where the bloody hell did that come from?” she screamed dropping her bags on the floor.

“It was inside the machine” Fitz answered “It might be its power source.”

“Is it inert?” Jemma asked.

“That’s the blue cube thingy…” Daisy stammered.

“What is that? It looks so pretty.” Skye marveled, taking the ear buds out.

“I’ll explain later, just don’t touch it.” Scott said, slapping her hand away as she reached out to poke it.

“Well you must have touched it. It wasn’t here when we left.”

“Yeah, with tools, not with our bear hands.” Fitz yelled at the girl.

“Oh come on, what’s the worst that could happen…” Skye said.

She grabbed hold of the Tesseract. The other’s braced themselves for something to happen.

“What?” Skye looked at them, holding the cube in her hand and playing with it.

“Are you daft? That thing is an extraterrestrial artifact of immense power.” Fitz said “The last known person to physically touch it was zapped to God only knows where.”

“Not that he didn’t disserve it” Dasiy threw out.

“EEPP!” Skye yelled and put the cube back down.

 “The last time SHIELD saw that bloody thing,” Fitz continued “Thor was taking it back to Asgard.”

“Thor?” Skye asked “As in Thor, the old Norse god of thunder? Thor, the dude with the hammer?”

“He’s an alien.” Jemma said

“So aliens _are_ real?”

“Were you not paying attention yesterday?” Daisy asked

“Sorry… My head just feels strange, really strange. I might need to lie down.”

“I think it would be best if we got all this back to HQ.” Jemma said

“Actually, I think the new applied sciences facility outside DC would be better” Fitz said.

Jemma and Daisy nodded in agreement. Scott was confused.

“When did we get a new Applied Science Division?”

“While you were away.” Jemma answered.

“How are we gonna get it there? The others are still halfway around the world.” Daisy asked.

“We could call for a Quinjet from base?” Fitz said

“Ahem” Scott said, motioning out the window at Zephyr Zero “Anyone need a ride?”

“You just want an excuse to take that out for spin.” Daisy said with her arms crossed.

“Guilty as charged.”

 

“Are you sure you know how to fly this thing.” Fitz asked as they loaded the machine into the plane.

“Not now, it’s a tight fit gotta concentrate. Jemma, the carpet lifts up in front of the coffee table; there are some strap hard points underneath.”

“Got it” She yelled back.

Scott and Daisy were working together to get the machine up into the plane.

“Ok Daisy, let’s put it down, real easy. Now.” The two let go and the machine dropped slightly onto its wheels.”

“To answer your question, this thing has so many automated pilot aids nearly anyone could fly it, but yes, I’m a certified pilot.”

“Why would a tech learn to fly a plane?” Fitz asked.

“…Because I felt like it?” Scott responded “My Grandfather flew B29s in the Pacific during the final months of the war. Even once he joined S.H.I.E.L.D. he remained in the Air Force Reserve. My dad spent much of his time in SHIELD as a transport pilot and now he flies for Fedex. Flying just runs in the family.”

They quickly tied down the box and prepped for takeoff.

“How does this thing take off from in here? There are streets and people outside.” Skye wondered, Scott having invited her to sit in the co-pilot seat.

“It’s got a VTOL mode like the Quinjets and Zephyr One” Fitz anwered.

“Basically it can take off and land straight up and down.” Daisy added.

“Like a helicopter” Jemma finished.

“You guys do realize you can’t all stay in here right? It’s a little cramped.” Scott asked from the pilot seat.

The other three agents gave him a look that for all intents and purposes screamed “We’re not riding next to that thing.”

“All righty then…” He continued, taking the hint.

“Skye, since you’re our guest, would you like to do then honors of pressing that button”

He pointed to a big white button on a box bolted to the top of instrument panel.

“What does it do?” she asked while pressing it.

“It’s the garage door opener.” He said as the roof slid away, letting the mid-day sun shine down.

Scott manipulated the controls, and three doors opened on the underside of the plane, revealing three replusor engines like the kind in Tony Stark’s Iron Man suits, only large enough to carry the plane into the air.

“Arc thrusters enabled. Repulsor lift mode on. Active camouflage on.” And with that, the plane’s electronic cloak blinked into action, hiding it from people’s vision.

“In the words of Brooklyn’s own Jackie Gleason; ‘And away we go” he said, as the plane rose into the sky, its wings unfolding once clear of the building.

 

“So how long should this take?” Skye asked as the Big Apple shrunk below them, the Zephyr now flying normally.

“Eh, bout an hour, hour and a half give or take.” Scott replied “While we can go pretty damn fast, our cloak doesn’t stop sonic booms. I’m not about to break every window in the Northeast while en route. I would also like to not rattle that thing around anymore than we have to.”

“What’s a sonic boom?” Skye asked

“Oh boy…” Scott muttered as the group settled in for the ride.

 

About half an hour later, high over the Delaware River, one of the displays began making a beeping noise.

“And so they starting building the network in the 50s based on the German…” Scott stopped his history lesson on the Interstate highway network “Hold on… Weather radar is picking up a storm cell. But I don’t see anything.” The summer sky beyond was clear, bright blue all the way to the horizon.  

Then, a loud computer voice began yelling through the cockpit “TERRAIN! PULL UP! TERRAIN! PULL UP!”

“We’re at 30,000 feet. We wouldn’t even hit Mount Everest.” Scott said, silencing the alarm. “Something is up with the FMS.”

“Um, guys…” Jemma stuttered.

The group looked behind them.

The machine was glowing again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've flown through Phoenix Sky Harbor once. lot of walking.


	11. Through the Looking Glass...

The Stark Device was suddenly throwing out streaks of lightning again, one of which shot toward the cockpit, causing everyone to duck.

But within a few seconds and as suddenly as it started, the flashing stopped.

“Everyone still here? Anyone here now that was not here a second ago?” Scott yelled.

“Awe man.” Skye moaned “It thought that was my ticket… home” she looked out the windshield.

The landscape outside had changed. The clouds and the sky were familiar to her, not the bright clear blue it had been just before.

“I’ve lost visual on I-95 and the Jersey Turnpike.” Scott reported “GPS is out. And I don’t have a signal on comms. I’m gonna need to go full manual.”

Scott shut off the auto pilot and throttled back on the engines. This action was greeted with a loud bang to his left followed by an alarm and the center console projecting a hologram of the plane showing a large part of the left wing in red.

“Great, flame out in port turbojet. I’m gonna need to find a secure place to set her down less we lose the other engine. Captain Sully Sullenberger, I am not. Someone watch the inertial guidance system, the rest of you keep your eyes peeled.”

 

“Air field a 2 o’clock” Jemma called out a few minutes later

“Looks like the Aberdeen Army proving ground” Daisy said, looking at the digital map.

 

Scott switched off the active camouflage and his radar warning lights lit up like a Christmas tree.

A voice came over the normal radio “ _Unidentified aircraft, you have entered restricted airspace. Identify yourself or we will open fire._ ”

“MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY! This is SHIELD 79203 declaring an emergency. I am transporting volatile cargo and am having a cascading systems failure. I’m down to one engine and I’m not sure I can keep it running.”

“ _This is restricted airspace_ ,” The voice replied “ _turn away now or we will open fire_.”

“I represent a government sanctioned organization. I’ll answer any and all questions you might have, just not here or now.”

“ _This is your final warning…_ ”

“If I end up crashing into someone’s house, this is on your dumb ass buddy!”

Skye quickly pulled Scott’s headset off him.

“SSR authorization Tango Wisky One One Alpha Three.” She said into the mic

The radio went silent for a moment

“ _Authorization accepted. Clear to land runway 22. Do you require any other assistance?_ ”

“Yes” Skye responded “Contact SSR headquarters, ask them to come meet us. Tell them Lt. Skye Simmons sent you. Code word is Breadcrumb.”

“ _Rodger that, lieutenant_.”

The others glanced at Skye

“I’m home…” Skye said with a tear in her eye.

 

Not wanting to revel the repulsors, Scott just managed to maintain control long enough to set _Zephyr Zero_ down on the runway the old fashioned way.

Once the plane came to a stop, the group quickly clambered out.

“How did the machine turn on? We took the cube out.” Fitz asked, panting.

“We’ll think about that later” Daisy said “We’ve got company.”

About 15 jeeps and trucks were driving towards them. Dozens of solders, all carrying M1 rifles cambered out and surrounded them.

“Get down on your knees, hands on your head.” An MP barked at them.

“I’m Lt. Skye Simmons of the”

“I said down.” He repeated, pointing his gun at her.

“OK… OK…”

Another jeep rolled up and an officer climbed out.

“orders from HQ are to detain them. Take them into the administration building and put them in the stockade.”

“Up, one at a time. Keep your hands on your heads” The MP yelled.

 

He then marched the five towards a nearby building.


	12. ...And what they found there

“Captain, Sir, with all due respect, you have no reason to hold us here.” Skye pleded with the officer on the other side of the bars. “My pilot declared an emergency. He couldn’t give the code because he too busy keeping us from dying. Is this really necessary?”

“Orders are orders.” The man said “If you really are a soldier, you’d know that.”

“How long are you gonna hold us?” Daisy asked.

“Until ordered to do otherwise.”

“If someone ordered you to jump off a bridge or eat your gun would you do it?”Fitz asked again

“Of course, if those are my orders.” He then left.

 

“Sitting in dank basement jail cell and I don’t have my harmonica.” Scott muttered

“Don’t start.” Daisy threw back at him. “Do you even know how to play any instruments anyway?”

“That’s not… OK I can play ONE song on the guitar.”

“Can we not, please?” Jemma asked.

“Whose’s got what?” Daisy asked “Stick of gum? A bobby pin?”

“Why don’t you try taking out a wall?” Jemma asked.

Daisy looked it over “I think I’d bring the whole building down on top of us.”

“Yeah, this doesn’t look very solid.” Fitz added “Not very well maintained”

“So, like I said, who’s got what in their pockets?”

Most of the other’s had left their stuff on the Zephyr, but Scott had his phone. A phone he’d mentioned in passing earlier contained a limited remote control interface for the plane.

“No cell phones means no signal, which means this is limited to a wifi link. Which won’t work in here, we’re too far from the plane and wifi doesn’t like cinderblocks and cement.”

Skye, meanwhile, just paced back and forth with an angry look on her face. The others left her to it less she bit someone’s head off.

“Maybe she could wear a hole to china and get us out of here” Scott joked

“China isn’t…”

“Don’t care, Fitz” Scott quipped “And people say I ramble”

 

Sometime later, the drone of a propeller driven aircraft sounded the arrival of another plane. The captain came back in the room.

“Lt Skye Simmons?” He asked. Skye ran the bars of their cell “Are you going to let us out now?” she asked him.

“You are out of uniform, Lt. Simmons.” A new voice said, with a distinct Texas drawl.

“Director Garret!” Skye cried out.

In to the room stepped a dark shadow from the SHIELD agent’s pasts. John Garret, the man known to them as “The Clairvoyant”. He was wearing the uniform of a two star Air Force general.

“What’s with all the yelling, you’re usually not this happy to see me.”

“I’m sorry sir, I’ve just had a rough few days.”

“You’re AWOL solider. I expect better than this from you.”

“Sir, I can explain.”

“Yes you will young lady.” He replied sternly. “Let her out” he told the guard before turning to an SSR officer next to him “Take her back to base for court marshal and then arrange transport to Fort Leavenworth.”

“What about the rest of them, Sir?” The captain asked

“Ehh.. shoot’em. Throw their bodies back on that abomination they came on and use it as target practice. The less anyone sees the better. ”

The response drew shouts from the four but the Director wasn’t going to hear it and started to leave

“But…” Skye said. THAT got his attention.

“But?” Garret asked, turning back to Skye. “But? Did you just say ‘But’ to me? Did you just question a superior officer? This isn’t like you at all Skye.”

“Sir, please, I can explain, just, please, don’t hurt them. They were only trying to help me. I’m begging you. Just let them go home.”

“Now you’re begging me? I was worried this day would come. I guess this is for the better. Zebra… Waterfall… Chessboard…”

“Daisy,” Scott said as Skye went sort of cross-eyed “I think it’s time we make a scene…”

“You read my mind.”

As the guard unlocked the door to remove Skye, Daisy and Scott used their combined powers to knock it off its hinges and throw the three men into the wall, knocking them all out. Fitz grabbed the guard’s rifle while Daisy and Scott stole the officer’s side arms.

“Let’s get a move on” Daisy said, while grabbing her dazed doppelganger by the arm “You’re coming with us”

Skye was almost limp at this point.

“We’ll carry her” Jemma said “ you two lead the way”

 

They ran out into the basement hallway and made it halfway up the stairs to the ground floor before an alarm started blaring.

“Never easy…” Scott muttered.

“Halt!” a soldier yelled out. He standing at the top of the stairs with three other guards.

Daisy held out her hand and gave them a blasting of her powers, knocking them back into the wall.

 

The team was halfway down the corridor when about five more soldiers came round a bend.

“Surrender now, this is your last chance.” One of them said.

“Oh please, you don’t look so tough.” Scott said, mocking them.

Suddenly, there was a noise in the air. It was faint to some, but to the five guards, it caused them to shake and tremble and caused Skye to double over in pain.

“What the hell is that” Daisy asked

“Some sort of ultrasonic frequency.” Fitz answered her.

The soldiers opened their eyes and the middle one smirked.

“You were warned.”

Daisy fired off a quake blast, but the man just shrugged it off.

“Ok, that’s not supposed to happen.”

“Plan B?” Scott asked.

“Do something!” Jemma yelled at them, more troops were coming up behind them, these with their guns drawn.

Scott flicked his wrists at the troops. They didn’t budge ether.

“I’m a bit scared at the moment.” Scott fussed “Can’t exactly focus.”

“Ready” a voice called.

The approaching troops raised their weapons

“Aim!”

Daisy jumped in front of the others

“NO! DAISY!” Scott screamed

“Fire!”

It all happened in an instant.

Daisy closed her eyes. She’d been shot before. She knew what to expect.

But nothing happened. No pain. Nothing. She opened her eyes.

 

The bullets just were hanging in mid air. Still spinning, but just floating there.

She turned around to see Scott, his hands extened, shaking with his teeth gritted.

“I can’t do this forever” He said, straining. “Get down!”

The others dropped to the floor, Scott letting the bullets go.

The sailed onward and struck the guards, killing them.

Daisy reached upwards and quaked the armed men down.

“Thanks for the backup.” She said to Scott as they got back to their feet.

“Any time.” He said, panting for breath. “Just not any time soon please.”

She gave him a kiss on the cheek and smiled before scouting ahead.

“On second thought…” Scott said to himself.

“Didn’t know you could do that.” Fitz said as Scott helped him and Jemma onto their feet.

“Neither did I”

“I thought you said you needed focus.” Jemma added.

“I think I had it.” Scott said, looking towards Daisy.

 

Finally, they reached the door to the airfield.

“Scott, how about some extraction?” Daisy asked as they ran outside,.

“Plane might not be airworthy on its main engines, but I can send it up into the clouds on her replusors where they won’t be able to see us.”

He pulled out his phone and accesses the remote controls for _Zephyr Zero_.

“It’s no good.” He yelled “All I’m getting back is garbled data. The flight computers are still all haywire. All I have is systems not tied into the FMS. I can arm its security system for now but that’s about it.”

They heard a rumble in the distance.

“Please tell me that’s not a tank.” Scott said.

As if fate was answering, an M4 Sherman tank rounded the corner of the building at the far end of the runway and started driving towards them.

“Yeah, that’s a Tank.” Daisy said “We’re gonna need to steal some wheels and get the heck out of here.”

Scott put on another one of his grins. “Not nessisarly.” He said.

He pressed another button, and a hatch on the underside of the plane opened, lowering out his car. With little noise, it raced to meet its owner.

“Everybody in!”

The group jumped in quickly and Scott floored it.

 

“What’s… what happened” Skye asked.

“Skye… You tell us. What the fuck was that?”Daisy asked angrily.

“I… I don’t… He never seemed like that before.” She said, her mind clearing.

“I mean…” Daisy started.

“She was out of it Daisy.” Jemma reminded her friend. “She’s not going to remember.”

“Best thing to do now is find a safe place to hide.” Scott said, looking at the looming machine in the rear view mirror. He flicked a switch on the dashboard “here’s a good one.”

The car’s own active camouflage system flickered to life.

“And you guys thought electric cars were only an environmental statement. They can’t see us and they can’t hear us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pub quiz fact:
> 
> The last M4 Sherman tanks in active service with a military organization (a presidential escort unit in Paraguay) were only retired in April of 2018. So if they can survive in this world for 75 years...


	13. Bonding

A few hours later, as the sun was lowering itself in the distance, they’d found a secluded back roads area nearer to Baltimore to pull over.

“When the car is plugged into _Zephyr Zero_ ” Scott explained with himself, Daisy and Fitz standing around a computer in the car’s open trunk “this system doubles as an extra black box. It will take me a while, but I should get an idea of the status of the computers.”

The plane’s diagnostic data appeared on screen.

“Or it could take two seconds. Recognized that?” He asked Fitz

“An EM spike. Right around the time the machine when off”

“So it both brought us here and disabled the plane” Daisy clued in.

“Our only option is going to have to be a remote rolling reboot of each system. Any other options on restart on that plane require a person at the breaker panel and a ground power connection. Just hope the batteries have enough of a charge.”

 

Skye and Jemma were sitting on a log nearby.

“You’ve been quiet for a while now” Jemma said.

Skye put her hands up to her head again in obvious pain. “Director Garret was like a father to me. He always wanted my opinion on things. He even walked me down the aisle at my wedding. But he was going to court marshal me, toss me in the stockade for the rest of my life and kill the rest of you, all without a second thought. After you’ve all been so nice to me, he wouldn’t let me get a word in edge wise.” She started to cry a little.

Jemma gave her a pat on the back.

“I know you’re not… you know… her, but, having you here. It helps. It reminds me I have to get back to my Jemma. It gives me a reason to keep going. Thank you.”

Daisy walked over and sat on Skye’s other side.

“The boys have some crazy plan, something to do a rocket and some wire.” She said pointing to Scott and Fitz deep in the trunk pulling on stuff, before noticing Skye snillfing.

 “You ok?” she asked.

“No. I thought I’d be happy to be back but, honestly, I’m terrifed. Everything seems so wrong. Can I tell you guys something? I’ve done a lot of thinking as we were riding around and… when we find my Jemma, if she’s OK with it… I think… I think I want us… I want us to go home with you guys. I don’t want to stay here anymore. I don’t want my child living in a world like this. Something is really wrong and it scares me.”

“Our world isn’t all flowers and puppy dogs.” Jemma told her.

“People we thought were friends have tried to kill us multiple times.” Daisy added.

“I just want a place where my family is going to be safe. We’ll just go there and hide. You’ll never hear from us again.”

“Why hide? Why not stay with us?” Jemma asked

“Wouldn’t people confuse me with Daisy?”

“Let’s just say I know how to play with government records. I’ve outright deleted people, including myself, a few times. Doing the reverse shouldn’t be too hard.”

An idea suddenly popped into Daisy’s head. It was a strange idea. Didn’t make much sense. But gut feelings tend not to make sense.

“Maybe even, you know, possibly… If you want… give myself…” Daisy said as she put her arm around Skye. “…a sister?”

Skye looked at the other girl. Daisy just smiled

“You mean that?” Skye said, eyes wide, “You really mean that?”

“Dear sister of mine, would I lie to you?” Daisy said

Skye’s eyes light up and she gave Daisy a hug.

“I guess you really are twins now…” Jemma added.

“Yeah…” Daisy said “My long lost, identical twin sister Skye. Since all records of my birth were scrubbed and my parents aren’t around to say otherwise, who’s left to say I _don’t_ have a sister…?”

Skye was crying like Niagara Falls at this point.

“Thank you.” She said to Daisy.

“Hey, I’m sure you’d have done the same thing for me. I’ll even make you the older twin if you want.”

“You don’t have to do that much for me.” Skye said, taking a deep breath.

They heard a crash coming from the car.

“We better go see what those two are up to.” Jemma said.

 

The girls walked back to where Fitz and Scott were dragging a heavy spool of cable from the back of the car towards what looked like a bottle rocket.

“Guys, we have some news…” Daisy said. “Skye wants to come back with us. And… I’ve offered to make her my sister.”

Skye then walked up to Scott “So… You keep your hands off my sister!” she said, poking him in the chest. “Sorry, I just always wanted a real family and…”

“No problem…” He and Fitz returned to what they were doing. “I would recommend you guys get in the car now. Once we set this off, they’re going to know where we are and we’ll need to leave in a hurry.”

Jemma, Daisy and Skye climbed into the back seat.

Scott and Fitz joined them a few moments later.

“If there is one thing Director Fury instilled in me, it’s ‘be prepared.” Scott explained before launching into a poor imitation of the former director “Scott, my boy, you never know what a mission is going to throw at you. Consider every option and be prepared for every eventuality.”

“That rocket will drag that cable into the air.” Fitz added “the cable will work as a short wave radio antenna that we can broadcast commands to the Zephyr with.”

“Unless” Scott continued “they’ve dropped heavy ordinance on it, which I highly doubt they got close enough to do. Ready?”

Fitz nodded

“3… 2… 1…” He slammed the enter key on the computer he was holding. This was immediately followed by a hiss and a whistle as the sky rocket launched.

“Signal broadcasting, we have contact… commands are running…” A loud “thwack” was heard as the cable snapped taught. “And we’re done! Let’s go!”

Scott put the car in drive and they raced away.

“We get anything back?”Scott asked

“Looks like one video file.” He opened it. It was footage from a camera mounted on the underside of the plane. He could the tank from before rolling towards the plane. Suddenly, the sides of the screen began to glow, and almost instantly, there was no tank.

“Scott?” Fitz asked, handing the computer over his shoulder to show the girls. “What the bloody hell do you attach to that jet?”

“I added a few party pieces from the archives… A Destroyer Gun. Or two. or four.”


	14. By the yellow moonlight

Early the next morning, still before dawn, Skye and Scott were the only two still awake. Scott was driving, keeping them on the move after taking a few hours sleep. Fitz, Daisy and Jemma were slumped on top of each other in the back seat and Skye, who’d been riding shotgun, needed a bathroom break.

As she walked back to the car from behind a tree, she found Scott sitting outside on the hood.

“Needed to stand up and walk around.” He told her.

Scott was looking up at the moon through the hazy, polluted tinge of the night sky.

“Air’s so yellow here it almost does look like cheese.” He said “How long has it been like that?”

“As long as I can remember.” She told him, sitting next to him.

“Can’t be good for breathing.”

“Having seen what it should look like, it’s part of the reason I don’t want to stay. When you opened that door and showed me New York, for a split second, I’d thought I’d died and gone to heaven. It was so clear and fresh and beautiful and shiny. You think I want to be a mother to a child who has to breathe that knowing something better is out there?

“I didn’t say anything.” He said “You don’t need to defend your decision to me. It’s yours to make.”

“Sorry. I’m feeling a lot of stress. I feel very emotional right now for some reason. Head still hurts like all hell… What are you doing?”

“Taking a picture” He said, holding out his phone.

“Why? It’s the moon. You’ve got one two.”

“You know what the difference is between your moon and my moon?”

She shook her head.

“July 20th, 1969. The day humanity first set foot on another celestial body. We’ve been to the Moon, Skye. Two decades before any of us were even born. Daisy, Fitz, Simmons and I grew up in a world where that is just a fact of life. Where everyone knows the name Neil Armstrong and his “one small step” line as he set foot on the surface. I’m looking up at what is basically the opposite of what you saw in Manhattan. A mysterious wonder in the sky, untouched by man.”

“Wow…” Skye said “What’s it like?”

“A big, grey beach…”

“have you ever been?”

“Space Travel isn’t like what you see in the pulp novels and on screen. We only went to the moon a few times and it’s still a massive, expensive idea. To get two men onto the moon in a craft the size of a camper van, it took a rocket 36 stories tall. If you want to know what it’s like in short, ask the others.”

“Ask them about..?”

 

 

Scott sat on the hood with Skye, telling her what he knew about both the team’s trip to the future and Daisy’s ride into space to save Coulson.

 

 

“Wow…” Skye said when he finished. “makes me feel almost small. Worthless… Pointless…”

“Your world has been turned upside down. It happens. Tell you what; you want to try driving for a little while? Might take your mind off everything.” He asked, getting up

“I… I can’t drive.” She said, somewhat flustered.

“Come again?”

“I can’t drive. I’m not allowed to.”

“Not allowed as in ‘never took the test’ not allowed or not allowed as in ‘you did something stupid and they took your license away’ not allowed?”

She looked down at her feet.

“Skye… we’re fugitives.” Scott said “As far as your former employers care, we’re criminals, dare I say terrorists. Driving without a license is the least of your concerns if they catch us.”

“No it’s… “She swallowed “I’m a bit nearsighted. I’m supposed to wear glasses when I drive and I don’t have them and I don’t want to wrap the car around a tree.”

“Why don’t you have them?” he asked flatly.

“Well I… I…” She said, before muttering something under her breath…

“SKYE!” Scott hissed

“They make me look like a dork, OK? Happy?”

Scott put his hand on her shoulder. “Skye, I’ve known you for nearly 48 hours now, and by every indication, you ARE a dork.”

“No I’m not!” she fussed.

“Coney Island…”

“I was excited. I don’t know what came over me.”

“So? I don’t know if you noticed, but we’re like the Dork Patrol, the Dork Squad. It’s Dork Central Station around here. Daisy used to squeal every time she came across a gifted. Jemma and Fitz are in the dictionary under “Nerd” and you should have seen me back in the old days every time I ran into Daisy. I couldn’t get out a complete sentence I was so enamored.”

“Do you love her?” Skye asked

Scott looked at her. “Why are you changing the subject?”

“Just answer me. Do you love her?” She repeated. “Do you love Daisy?”

Scott turned and took a few steps away from the car.

“Yes” he said, turning around. “I love her. She’s smart and beautiful and tough and yet still so kind. What’s not to love?”

“So why don’t you tell her that?”

“What does this have to do with you and your glasses?”

“It’s a touchy subject for me. Like I assume telling Daisy the truth is for you…”

“I’m sorry, you’re right” he sighed “Come one. Let’s get a move on.”

They climbed back in the car.

Scott looked over at Skye, into the back seat at the sleeping Daisy and back at Skye..

“What are you doing?”

“Thinking what you two would look like wearing glasses.”

“And…” she asked.

“I think the both of you would look extremely adorkable.”

“That is not a word.”

“It is where we come from.”

 Scott started the car and they took off down the road again.

Not long after, Skye’s stomach growled.

“I’m starting to get really hungry.” She said “My Jemma always has a ration bar or two on her for me…”

Her eyes widened and she smiled “I think I know how we can kill two birds with one stone.”


	15. Reunions and Truths

“My Jemma is a creature of habit. If we’re lucky she should be coming this way any second.” Skye said. The group was huddled behind gravestones in a cemetery on the outskirts of Washington.

“My in-laws died three years ago in a fire.” She continued “Jemma has visited them every day since at 11 AM, weather and work permitting of course. Be ready when she shows up.”

The group had arrived at the cemetery in the pre-dawn hours and hid the car in the groundskeeper’s equipment shed, tying the man up.

“Here she comes” Skye whispered.

A jeep was rolling up the road, being driven by a guard with Skye’s Jemma in the passenger seat. The man helped her out and proceeded to stand next the jeep while the pregnant woman walked towards her parent’s grave.

“Hello mother. Hello Father. “She said towards the stone “Skye is still missing, and I’m very worried about her.”

As she was talking to the grave, her escort stood motionless until he felt a tapping on his shoulder.

“Excuse me?” A voice asked.

The guard turned only to be met with a rifle butt crashing into the side of his head, knocking him out.

“Grab his gun, his wallet and anything of value.” Scott told Fitz as he held the gun towards the unconscious man. He flashed a thumbs up to Skye, who ran out from behind a tree towards the woman she loved.

“JEMMA!” She yelled.

“Oh… Hello Skye.” Her wife smiled towards her. “It’s good to see you again. I’m so glad you’re all right”

“No time to explain” Skye said, grabbing her wife’s hand “We need to go, NOW”

“Skye, don’t you want to say hello to my parents?” she asked stiffly. “You always say hello.”

“We don’t have time for this. We need to leave. Jemma, why are you acting this way?” Skye started to cry again.

“Skye, when was the last time you had a ration bar?” her wife asked. She reached into her bag and took out a foil wrapped bar and offered it to her.

“I don’t know, a few days? Why does that matter?” Skye asked, angrily, slapping the bar away. “We need to leave NOW! The SSR, they’re coming for us!”

With that, her wife’s demeanor changed instantly. She drew Skye in and gave her a long, hard kiss.

“Jemma?” Skye asked after the other girl backed away

“Oh my sweet, sweet Skye.” she said, smiling “I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time. You’re all mine again at last.”

 

 

“So she’s my duplicate from another earth? Another reality?” Dr Jemma Simmons of the SSR said, looking at Agent Jemma Simmons of SHIELD. In their few minutes together, the SHIELD agents had quickly taken to calling Skye’s wife by her title to distinguish between the two. The doctor was sitting at a funny angle on her wife’s lap in the passenger seat, careful not to bruise her belly.

“This seems almost unreal.” She said, looking both at her doppelganger and that of her wife, scrunched into the now even more crowded car with another face she recognized.

“Is that Leopold..?” She asked.

“Please, it’s just Fitz”

“So who are you?” She asked of Scott.

“Nobody of any real importance right now other the guy driving who’s leg your heel is digging into.”

She quickly moved her foot with an “Oops, sorry.”

“honey, what’s going on.” Skye asked “People are acting weird. They seem all stiff.”

“And to the cave she has returned…” Dr. Simmons whispered before speaking louder “I’ll explain everything once we get there.”

“Oh, one thing, Dr. Simmons” Scott said “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, I guess Mr. Nobody of any real…”

“It’s Scott. My name’s Scott.”

“Ok, Scott. Ask away”

“How’s you and Skye’s sex life?” He asked. The three agents in the back seat were in silent hysterics, Skye was embarrassed and Simmons was mortified before Scott added “Skye, what did I say yesterday?”

“I was getting a bit nosey about his relationship with the other me.” She told her shocked wife “He did warn me he’d do that if he ever met you.”

“And I make good on my threats…” He said with a smile.

“Oh…” Dr Simmons said before turning to the back seat. “So you two aren’t..?”

“No.” came the reply from the two women. Fitz and Jemma then held up their hands together, showing her their wedding rings.

“OHH…” Simmons said. “Well then, what about you..?” She asked Daisy

“It’s Daisy. And… It’s complicated.”

“It is indeed” Simmons muttered under her breath.

 

They were driving towards an address Dr. Simmons had given them. They spent the time explaining who they were and what had transpired over the last three days to her.

The team arrived at what looked like an abandoned warehouse complex way out in the middle of nowhere.

“Drive inside building 2, we’ll be safe there.” Dr Simmons said.

Scott stopped the car and they all climbed out.

 

“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!” a familiar sounding voice yelled

“May…” the agents said almost in unison. As if on cue, dozens of armed men appeared as if out of nowhere.

And standing at the forefront… was Melinda May.

“Chimera…” Skye muttered.

“Dr. Simmons, this is a serious breach in protocol.” May said, not realizing she was talking to the wrong woman.

“I’m over here, Melinda.” Dr. Simmons said.

The older woman did a double take before walking over to the pregnant woman.

“As I was saying, showing up unannounced, let alone with company was a serious risk.” He scowl turned into a smile “But it is good to see you again, Jemma.”

“Jemma?” Skye asked her wife “What the fuck is going on?”

Simmons looked at Skye. She walked up close to her and took her hands.

“Skye, you are the love of my life. I want to re-enforce that. I LOVE YOU. You are my everything. You give me meaning. The day you asked me to be your bride was the moment I realized what my life was for, why God put me on this Earth. EVERYTHING I’ve done, I’ve done for you. I’ve hated having to lie to you all this time…” She bit her lip but continued.

“I’m… a double agent. A spy. A mole. My allegiances are with CHIMERA, they always have been. I’ve been working for them this whole time, before you even met me.”


	16. Jemma Simmons: Agent of CHIMERA

“You… You’re a what...?” Skye muttered, dumbfounded. “All this time? How? How could you…”

A fire was burning in Dr. Simmons eyes. She launched into a tirade, screaming like Skye (or anyone else present for that matter) never knew she could “How could I? How could I have loyalty to the man who ravaged my homeland for its resources and dragged people like me and my parents away from our friends and family to serve in his personal army? How could I have any loyalty to a system that force feeds the woman I love POISON to enslave her?” she screamed, pulling another ration bar out, waving it in front of her before slamming it on the ground and stomping on it.

“Poison?” Skye asked

“YES!” Simmons screamed almost in tears “These STUPID things are laced with psychotropic drugs to control people. To make you obedient to your ‘Superiors’. When I started, I was just supposed to be an informant, passing along details of movements, warnings when SSR was going to move on a CHIMERA base. But then… I met you. I never felt so complete before. I hated watching what you became thanks to these pieces of trash!

“Skye, the people around you didn’t change, you changed. You came off the drugs. They messed with your perception. That’s why everyone seemed different. That’s why you’ve had headaches. That’s why you’ve been so emotional. You’re going through withdrawal. The real you has started to break through the mold the SSR placed you in.”

“But I’ve had these headaches since before I stopped eating the bars” Skye countered.

“Because you’ve been developing immunity to it. Those weren’t vitamin pills I was making you take. They were suppressants, a cure I created. I’m naturally immune to the drugs for some reason.”

“And to the cave she has returned.” Scott interjected, remembering what Simmons had said in the car “Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’? Seeing the real world and then knowing what the world you knew really was… Skye used to act no different than the rest of them, didn’t she. Stiff and robotic, obeying orders to a fault? Is that what you’re trying to say?”

Dr. Simmons nodded in response. “The government has been feeding them to their troops for years. Then they started making the drugged versions public about 15 years ago because dissent was at an all time high.”

She turned back to Skye.

“But now you’re free. Free to be the person you were meant to be. To be the woman I love. I love you Skye.”

“Jemma. Three days ago, I would have shot you where you stood…”

“Darling, you have every right to be beyond furious with me… I” Simmons interrupted

“NOT DONE… But, even after you admitted everything. I can’t bring myself to mad at you. I want to be, but I can’t. The part of me that is still a loyal solider is getting quieter by the minute. After I saw their world, for all its flaws, it still felt like a paradise. People were free and happy, and there were hot dogs and clam chowder and Pizza. I saw what we were doing. I see, I know, how wrong this all is… and how wrong I was for going along with it.”

“I even remember you” Skye said to May “You weren’t torturing me… You… You saved me from the fire... You smiled because I was ok…”

“Look, I don’t mean to interrupt this touching scene.” May said “But who are these people? And why do two of them look like the two of you?”

“I’m Daisy Johnson” Daisy offered “This is Leo Fitz, Scott Riley and our Jemma Simmons. We’re not from around here.”

 

 

“SHIELD?” May asked. She had the four agents standing in a corner of the building, still at gunpoint.

“Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division.” Daisy said. “God I’m getting tired of repeating that. Long story short, on our world, our agency replaced the SSR after the war. Steve Rodgers crashed that plane instead of Stark and Carter and they went on to turn the agency into an intelligence and crime fighting outfit.”

“When the shit hits the fan…” Fitz started

“…We’re the ones the world turns to, to solve it.” Jemma finished.

“Each of us is actually a specialist in a field SSR here restricts.” Scott said “Daisy and I with computers, Fitz is an engineer and our Jemma here is a biochemist.”

At that moment, a beeping tone started to play in Scott’s pocket.

“We’ve been set up!” May yelled, pulling out a pistol and pointing it at Scott. Her men trained their guns on him as well.

“Scott! NO!” Daisy screamed, slamming her hands into the ground and knocking the CHIMERA troops down with her Inhuman abilities.

“You don’t lay a hand…” She yelled at May, followed by turning to smile at Scott sand saying “On my boyfriend!”

Scott looked at her. She just kept smiling. He smiled back and started to laugh a little.

“If you had asked Miss May,” Scott said, using his own powers to disarm them “I would have told you that yes, this is a homing beacon, but for our plane to find us.”

“What the hell are you two?”

Scott looked at Daisy and then back to the woman on the ground, crouching down towards her.

“We call ourselves ‘Inhumans.” He said with a smile, finally embracing the term to describe himself.

 

The beeping grew quicker until it became a solid tone. A loud roar followed and the two led the others outside to see _Zephyr Zero_ deactivate its camouflage and lower itself to the ground.

“Who’s flying that thing?” May asked. She, Simmons and most of the chimera troops were standing agape as the black jet touched down.

“technically, it flew itself here. Most planes can fly by themselves in some form.” Fitz said “Like we said, our world is more technologically advanced. I didn’t know where we’d be, so I ordered the autopilot to do I spiral search pattern until it locked on to the signal Scott’s phone was transmitting.”

“Let’s go check on ‘the payload.” Scott suggested.


	17. Love and a revilation.

Much to their delight, the infernal machine was still aboard, meaning they should be able to go home.

Scott sat down in the cockpit to go over the plane’s systems while the others were eating the left over pizza from two nights prior. Eventually there was a knock at the door, it was Daisy.

“Hey, I bought you a slice, you haven’t eaten yet.”

“Thanks. And..thanks for before. Saving my ass. Unlike before, I couldn’t have stopped all of them without something to throw around. Where’s Yo-Yo when you need her.”

“Now what kind of superpowered girlfriend would I be if I let that happen? Especially after you saved me yesterday.” she said, sitting down in the co-pilot’s seat

“Do you honestly mean that?” Scott asked between bites of pizza. “About us?”

“If you want it to be.” She said. “We could try it out for a while. See how it feels…”

“I thought you were playing off Skye’s line from yesterday.” He said.

“Well, I was, in a way. She is my sister, you know. Speaking of, you know I heard what you said to her last night, about me. And she told me about it while you and Fitz were trying up that groundskeeper. ‘Scott really, really likes you; you should give him a shot. He seems like an awesome guy and he’s kinda handsome”

“Oh that little…” Scott laughed. “Wait a second…”

“Ok. I added on that last bit.”

They smiled at each other, internally embracing the idea of being a couple.

“Really, how come you never said anything to me?” Daisy asked him.

“I…” Scott said “I was worried I’d lose you as a friend. You mean that much to me. Then you got your powers and became famous. I never exactly wanted to date a superhero, or a super spy... I… I just always wanted to be with that cute hacker I fell in love with. I don’t care about ‘Quake’ or “Agent Johnson”. I love YOU, Daisy…. I love you.”

She just smiled again and said “Well… I don’t know what to say, other than ‘I love you two.”

The two leaned toward each other for a kiss when another voice interrupted them.

“My God”. May was looking around the cockpit. She’d never seen something so complex.

“Ya mind?” Daisy said “We were kinda having a moment here.”

“Sorry” The older woman said “I just had to see for myself. This machine represents everything we strive for. For a world not dictated by some 100 year old crackpot who can’t let go of his past. Who’s scared of anything new. Anything that he doesn’t understand”

“You just described every old person” Daisy joked

She stood behind the two chairs, looking down at the plane’s digital and holographic cockpit displays.

“How does all this work?”

“Well,” Scott said “If you want the somewhat long version, instead of mechanical connections and dials, a cluster of computers, which on our earth are much smaller, accepts all the data inputs. You name it, and the system keeps tabs on it. One central system, the Flight management system, takes in all that information in and then can do one of two things, ether feed it to me as the pilot on these displays, or act upon it on its own within a given series of parameters, up to and including fly the plane all by itself as you saw a little while ago. Right now, I’m going over the data recorded over the past few days. That weird hunk of junk in the main cabin went off while we were flying yesterday. it gave off an EM field that caused a laundry list of system malfunctions and failures.”

Like… here” He continued, tapping on the engine status display screen. “Port turbojet is still down. Something is preventing it from restarting.”

“Well, you have three other engines.” May said.

“No, we don’t” Scott answered

This confused May “But there are four throttle levers” Pointing to the center controls.

“Yes, the middle two, the white ones, are for the standard Turbojet engines. Meanwhile, the outer two, the red ones, are for the ramjet engines. Ramjet engines rely on airspeed compression; they don’t have any moving parts. And that means without a sufficient push from both main engines, they don’t work, which means they are basically dead weight.”

He grabbed a tool kit from under his seat and went out to look at the problem, giving Daisy a quick kiss as he left. May went to follow him, but was intercepted by Dr Simmons with her wife on her arm.

“Melinda, may we have a word with you?” Simmons asked.

“Anything for my favorite expectant mother…” She said with a smile

“Good. I quit.” Simmons said with a smirk.

“You what?” May said, blindsided. “Jemma, you’ve been one of our most passionate and loyal agents. We are so close to distributing the cure.”

“I know. And you don’t need me for that. I made it, I proved it worked” patting Skye on the shoulder “and now I’m going with Skye and with our new friends.”

May looked dumbstruck

“Melinda,” She continued “I’m worthless to you in my current state and my priorities will be shifting quite soon” giving her soon to born child a light pat “My allegiance has always been with Chimera and it’s goal’s and ideals, but my loyalty” she turned to Skye “is to my wife. Where she goes, I go.”

“If that’s how you feel, then I have no reason to make you stay. Honestly, I can’t say I’m not proud of much how you’ve grown. You were so quiet and timid when I first met you. Have you discussed this with your folks?”

“Very funny…” Skye muttered before she had a realization “WAIT a second… You lying little Limey! They’re still alive, aren’t they?”

“And running a veterinary clinic outside Denver.” Simmons said with a smile.

Simmons expected Skye to explode but instead she gave her wife a hug “Oh I’m so glad to hear that.”

“So you’re not mad I made you drive 20 minutes a day so I could give intel to your sworn enemy? You know the tombstone has a radio in it right..?”

Skye looked at Simmons dead in the eyes “Baby, as of yesterday, my sworn enemies are the people who are trying to kill me and my new friends. Anyone who wants to rain on their parade is ok in my book.”

“AWE. Come here you.” Simmons said, nuzziling up against Skye.

“One question.” Skye stated “Why did your parent’s fake their deaths?”

“SSR was getting too close to discovering them. They are two of the co-founders of CHIMERA, after all.”

“Found” was all Skye could get out before she fainted.

“Probably should have kept that last bit to yourself…” May said, looking down at Skye in a heap on the floor.

Jemma and Daisy ran over to carry the unconscious woman over to the couch.

“Maybe I should save the rest for later… Much later.” Simmons said to May, with worry on her face.

“You’ll have to tell her at some point.” May whispered “If you’re right, she’s going to remember everything soon.”

“I know. I… I just want to save her the pain as long as possible. Would you like to suddenly remember the fact you’ve already died once?”


	18. Calm before the storm

Fitz walked out of the plane leaving the commotion of the passed out Skye and joined Scott inspecting the engine. It had started to drizzle slightly.

“how’s the wee beastie.” He asked

“On a scale one to absolutely fucked? Take a wild guess” Scott answered.

“That bad?”

“The Stark Aerospace saleswoman I was working with to get these overhauled promised me, in writing I might add, these would be EM hardened for anything short of a point blank nuclear strike. There is no reason the damn thing shouldn’t start.”

He gave the engine housing a smack.

“Didn’t you tell me hitting things doesn’t help?”Fitz reminded him

“Yeah, well, this can’t randomly summon copies of my girlfriend from other dimensions, now can it..? By the way, what was all that yelling inside?”

“Dr. Simmons confessed to Skye that her parents were among the founders of CHIMERA. Skye fainted”

Scott gave a snort like chuckle, bending over.

“Well if that isn’t irony I don’t know what is.”

“So, you two made it official then? You and Daisy? ” Fitz asked

“I guess you can call it the opposite of a ‘trial separation’. We’re gonna see how things work out.”

“Congratulations”

“Thanks.” Scott said, before sticking his head in the engine intake.

“You know” Fitz started “if we had…”

“The next word out of your mouth better not be ‘monkey’ or so help me God” Scott said, his voice echoing out of the engine.

“Well he could climb in there and…”

“Unless he’s wearing Dr. Pym’s ‘Ant Man’ suit I don’t think he’s gonna be much help.”

“It smells like something is trying to burn.” Fitz noticed

Scott took a sniff “You’re right. But it doesn’t smell like jet fuel”

“Guys” Jemma yelled from inside “You need to come inside right now.”

“We’re fine” Scott called out

“No, you don’t understand. That’s acid rain! And it’s only going to get worse!”

  “Acid…” The two realized what was burning was their clothes.

 

“Crap crap crap…” Scott said, standing in front of the other’s in his draws. The two doctors were looking them over for burns. The acidity was much higher than anything on their Earth and if they’d stayed out any longer their clothes would have been ruined.

“You two will live…” Simmons said, handing them bathrobes.

 

The rain picked up as the afternoon turned into evening and was steady well into the night, becoming a full blown thunderstorm around sunset. Fortunately it wasn’t strong enough to eat through the multi alloy body of the plane but it would have made going outside uncomfortable. May had ordered the Chimera troopers to leave, figuring worst case scenario was they’d been followed but the rain scarred the SSR off for now.

 

When it was time to turn in, Daisy moved her stuff into Scott’s bunk, giving her sleeping space to May.  Fitz and Jemma, meanwhile gave the suite over to Sky and Simmons because it had its own bathroom, better for the soon to be mother.

“So does this count as our first night together?” Scott asked Daisy lying beside him.

“Oh just shut up and kiss me…”

The three young couples had all long drifted off to sleep in each other’s embrace, while May was still lying there awake. She found it a bit funny how she was stuck spending the night with six young people, all around 30 years old, all in relationships and all at different stages. Skye and Simmons were long married and soon to be parents. Jemma and Fitz had been together a while and recently got married. Then, there was Daisy and Scott. She’d overheard them only just tell each other “I Love You” for the first time before, now they’d just fell asleep in each other’s arms after what sounded like a loud round of sex. She reached for her pants on the table and pulled a photograph out of the back pocket.

“You told me to take a chance on Jemma as a field agent, how she could be a great asset.” She told the photo “I said ‘No, her parents would kill us’, but, you were right. We’d never have gotten this far without her help. I’m just sad to see her go. She’s been like the daughter we always wanted. Always worrying about me, always putting her own safety at risk for the cause. I said ‘she’s only good for patching up the wounded’ but you changed my mind.”

She put the photo next to her in the bed, a ritual unknown to the world she’d done every night for the last few years, replicating the place its subject should have been had they not been killed by the SSR.

“I miss you more each day but I will always love you. Good night, my dear sweet Bobbi.” She said, to the blond woman’s picture next to her.

 

 

The group got a rude awakening the next morning.

“What’s with all the lights outside? Jemma asked her twin, before a booming voice came calling.

“Skye, Jemma. It doesn’t have to be this way. Come on out, let’s talk about this. Think of the baby” Director Garret had found them. The man had arrived with every soldier, police officer and government agent he could get his hands on.

“You sure they’re still here” he asked the man standing next to him.

“Oh they’re here.” Leopold Fitz answered. “I’d bet my good eye. Their magic car might be quiet and invisible, but it still leaves wheel tracks. Those traitorous dykes will get what’s coming to them.”

“Now, now, now, Mr. Fitz, that’s _not_ a nice thing to say at all.” Garret said, scolding him like he was a small child “They love each other. I think it’s sweet.”

The ever angry Scotsman looked at his boss.

“You’ll get your fill, don’t worry.” Garret promised.

“I told you that woman was up to something. And you didn’t listen.”

“I am not a giving pregnant woman red bars. I have standards, you know.”

“And now look where we are. A muddy field in the middle of nowhere and guess what, they have help from aliens.”

“They’re not aliens, you moron. I don’t know what they are but they don’t seem like aliens.”

“Whatever. Just hurry up, I want to kill somebody and sometime today would be awesome.”

“Has everyone ever told you that you have some fantastic anger management issues?”

Leopold growled at him in pent up frustration.

“Listen,” Garret told him “Calm down or I am going to start _you_ on ration bars…”

 

 

Back in the plane, May was panicking “How did they find us?” she asked. “Which one of you ratted us out?”

“Hey,” Daisy snapped “They tried to kill us. Why would we help them? We’ve only got one option right now, and that’s leaving.” She yelled the last part so that’s intended recipient could hear it better.

“Working on it sweetheart.” Scott called from the cockpit. But it was for naught. With only one working engine and having used up a large chunk of battery power over the night, the repulsors weren’t getting enough juice to start up.

“Guys…” He said, standing in the doorway to the main cabin “We’ve got once chance of getting out of here. And you’re not going to like it.”

Skye, Fitz, Daisy and Jemma knew what Scott was suggesting, but he went and said it anyway.

“We trigger that stupid hunk of junk.”


	19. A new world. a new truth

“Do we even know where that would leave us?” Jemma asked.

“What are you guys talking about?” May asked

“If we do it this close to the ground, what would happen to the people that might be there?” Skye added

“Hey?” May tried again.

“It’s our only option to avoid dying right here, right now.” Dasiy said

“HEY!” May yelled “What in God’s name are you kids talking about.”

“Cliff notes version” Scott said “This is the machine that brought Skye to our world and then brought us all to this one. We don’t know where it came from and we don’t know how it works. All we know it was built by the Howard Stark of a different earth than ether ours or yours. And it is currently our only way out of here that doesn’t involve body bags.”

The four SHIELD agents quickly had the casing of the Stark device open and were trying to find some way to control it. Eventually, they were able to wire a laptop into it. They also put the burned out Tesseract back in for safety’s sake.

“OK… come on… Got It” Fitz yelled.

They gathered around him and the computer. There was a list of ten numbers on the screen.

“It might be some sort of coordinate system. Each of these could be different Earths the machine has been on.” Jemma theorized.

“Great, how do we know which is ours?” Daisy asked in response.

“We don’t” Fitz said.

May leaned over the other’s

“There has to be some sort of system to this.” She said. “Look here” May touched the screen. The numbers suddenly lit up and the machine started glowing again.

It was a touch screen computer and her touch had activated the machine.

“Oh hell no…” Fitz muttered as the light show started.

 

Within the blink of an eye, the plane had vanished from view of the SSR assault squad waiting outside. The sudden silence from there no longer being a running jet engine made it all too obvious the plane wasn’t just invisible again

“Damn it!” Leopold yelled. He pulled out his pistol and shot a nearby Virginia state trooper in the head

“Mr. Fitz” Garret said, admonishing him “How many times have I asked you NOT to do that?”

 

 

Much to the amazement of the passengers of the _Zephyr Zero_ , they were still alive. More amazing was the plane was suddenly miles high in the sky and falling fast.

“I don’t think this is our stop” Scott said sarcastically, working his way towards the controls.

“What was your first clue” Fitz answered back.

 

Scott made it to the cockpit with time to spare, throttling up the one working engine and getting the plane into level flight. He switched the plane over to the autopilot and returned to the others.

“Try it again.” Scott told Fitz. “There are only ten numbers on that list.”

Fitz tapped another set on numbers on the screen, but nothing happened.

“Great. We might be stuck here for a while.”

“Stuck?” May asked “What do you mean stuck?”

“I mean this thing might as well have a mind of its own. We’ve been stuck dealing with it four days now and we know just about as much as we did when we started.”

“I have to go back” May said “We’re about to start distribution of the cure. My people, my world needs me.

“These two” she continued, pointing at Simmons and Skye “can do whatever they want but you HAVE to take me back.”

“We’re trying.” Scott said.

“Well then try harder!” She yelled before storming towards the rear of the plane.

 

“I still can’t get magnetic bearings right now” Scott said having checked the instruments, “but I do have GPS back. And the strange thing is, we’re hundreds of miles from where we should be.”

“Nothing got fried?” Fitz asked.

“Systems are fine.” Scott answered “No signs of another spike. We just need to replace the compass neddle and the flight controls should be like nothing happened”

“Maybe we shouldn’t have taken the cube out.”

 

May was sulking in the rear bay on the plane, sitting on the ramp. Skye, feeling a bit useless compared to the others went back to talk to her.

“What do you want?” May told the girl.

“Well to… apologize, for starters.” Skye answered, sitting down across from her.

“You don’t have much to apologize for. You were little more than a windup toy for that tin pot bastard Rodgers. You only thought your ideas and actions were your own.”

“I mean, I was doing what I was told.”

“That’s just the thing, Skye, you weren’t being told. You were being programmed. Like a machine. You stick some punch cards into a computer, you get an answer.”

“I still joined willingly. They offered me the job and I said yes. I rmemeber my first day, meeting Jemma. I remember my first assignment…”

Skye stopped, clutching her head in agony.

“Oh no… Oh GOD no… NO NO NO”

She got up and ran to Jemma, who was resting on their bed.

“I did it!” she cried “I killed them! It was me!”

 

 

 “Our fuel reserves are starting to run low.” Scott told Daisy, unaware of what was going on. The pair were sitting in the cockpit, looking for a safe place to land. “We can maybe do another ten hours in the air if I’m careful. We wasted a ton with the plane searching for us. With the engine out of idle, the backup batteries are charged up enough that if we leave everything off when we land, the repulsors will start when we need to take off, but we need to refuel and fix the other engine.”

“Which means not matter where we land, we can’t cloak.” Daisy responded. “We’re sitting ducks in a big, black plane, full of hardware someone might just love to get their hands on. I did some checking. There’s no refences to SHIELD, Inhumans, the Avengers or Hydra on this earth’s internet.”

Scott held out his hand and Daisy took it “At least we’re all in one piece.”He said “And together.”

 

Simmons marched back to talk to May.

“What the hell did you tell Skye?” she demanded of May “she’s practically inconsolable!”

“Nothing,” The older woman said, feeling a bit guilty anyway “Whatever got her upset she remembered on her own. I told you you’re going to have to tell her the truth. She needs to know everything. We might not have ‘Skye’ much longer.”

“But what did she remember?”

“She mentioned her first mission…”

“Oh god no… It’s too soon…” Simmons started to freak out.

“What was her first mission?” May asked

“Take out a CHIMERA safe house…”

“What? Which one?”

“Fairfax….”

“No. My God…” May said in shock “It can’t be…

“She remembers” Simmons cried sitting down next to her old friend “She remembers she killed her parents…”

 

Two hours later, Scott and Daisy noticed a seemingly abandoned airfield.

“Bingo!” Scott cried.

“We’re playing poker.” Fitz yelled from the back as a joke

“Shut up and buckle up, we’re landing. Go tell the others.”  

Scott switched the repulsors on and kicked the plane’s nose up to kill off horizontal momentum before bringing it down on the old airport’s apron.

“This is perfect.” He said, as he shut the plane down. “Everybody off.” He called out.

The Shield agents did their usual checks and sweeps, with Daisy quaking herself into the air to get a better look.

“Not much around.” She reported. “There’s a road nearby, but we’re mostly surrounded by trees.”

“My God” May said, steeping out of the plane “How can a place like this exist?”

Simmons looked around in much the same way, almost forgetting why she was upset.

“When Skye told me what the other world was like, even I could hardly believe her” She told he old friend.

May looked off into the distance. The blue sky, the greenery on the trees and the hills on the horizon. “It’s all his fault. Everything is. When we’re done with him, he’s going to pay for all of it. ”

“Hey” Daisy said “Where’s Skye?”

 

 

“Skye… you alright?” Daisy asked, entering the bedroom.

“No.” her twin cried “No I’m not alright. I’ll never be all right. I killed them, Daisy. I killed my parents! I’m a murder!”

“No.” Simmons said, entering the room behind Daisy. “You’re not a murder. Garret is the murder. He simply used you to kill them…”

“I DID IT! I REMEMBER PULLING THE TRIGGER! I taunted them and then I shot them!”

She sat down next to her wife. “Skye… That wasn’t you. That was someone else. They messed with your mind far, far worse than you realized. I should have told you this. I should have told you everything, but I couldn’t bear it. I didn’t want to see you like this. I knew this would happen. I wanted to protect you from this.”

“Jemma… What am I?” Skye cried. “WHO AM I?”

“You’re my wife. The woman I love. The woman I would do anything for.” she answered “And to me that’s all that matters.”

“No… something is very wrong and I want to know what it is. My head hurts even worse. I feel like someone’s on the inside trying to break out with a sledgehammer. WHO AM I?”

“Skye… I” Simmons started to cry also. The two leaned in and embraced. “You’re remembering. The cure I created is stripping away the mental blocks they put in your head.”

Simmons gave her a kiss and wipped away some of the tears.

“You… You were one of us.” Simmons told her. “You were CHIMERA. Your parents were early members. You grew up in one of our bases. We grew up together. We fell in love. We got married after you finished high school. We were a team. We were the best. And then, one day, we slipped up. They had us surrounded. You ran out to draw their attention. To let me escape.”

At this point Simmons was crying even harder than Skye was.

“You told me to go. I ran. I looked back and then… And then… They killed you! You died! Daisy… SKYE… You DIED!”

The girl’s head started to burn as if someone had replaced her blood with gasoline and tossed in a lit match.

“But, somehow, they brought you back. I joined SSR to find you. To bring you home… And there you were alive! But the girl I found had forgotten me. You didn’t know me. They’d created someone else within you. But I saw the glimmer in your eyes. I knew you were in there. I knew there was a way for you to come back to me!”

Skye was moaning and screaming, loud enough to draw attention from the others, who all came running. Her body was bucking, her eyes rolling back into her head and she was starting to foam at the mouth. Then, she suddenly convulsed and passed out.

“No…’ Simmons cried “Daisy! Daisy!”

“Should someone call an exorcist..?” Scott asked, Jemma slapping him in the back of the head.

“Jas?” a voice murmered.

“Daisy… You called me Jas” Simmons cried. “You’re back… You remember!”

“Jas… run Jas… run… please… go…”

“I think she’s talking in her sleep.” Jemma said before turning to her twin “And you, missy, have got so much explaining to do, it’s not even funny.”


	20. exposition

The four shield agents and May stood around Simmons, seated on the couch in the plane’s lounge area.

“I admit, I was hiding something from you four. May knows that Skye’s memories of her old life were repressed, but I kept why from her. Scott, Daisy, Fitz, Jemma… The truth is, everything my wife has told you about herself, about her life before joining SSR, is a lie. Those are false memories they gave her. ‘Skye’ doesn’t really exist. I’ve even been lying to you, about things like my name. Skye didn’t take my name when we got married, I took hers. My real name is Jemma Johnson.

At the point of saying her name, her voice changed. Much of her British accent faded, replaced by a much more American sounding one.

“I’ve lived in America most of my life. I can switch back and forth as needed, but even I admit this is a bit more natural for me. Now that the inevitable seems to have arrived, no more need to hide it. Daisy, my Daisy that is, and I first met when she was five years old and I was six. Back then she was also Daisy Johnson. Her parents had joined CHIMERA after China became browned land, sorry, that is the soil became too toxic to survive on. Dr. Johnson, being a US citizen, was able to return with his wife and child, but most people were left to die there as food ran out. Cal and Jiyang were as furious as everyone else at what Rodger’s actions had brought forth and signed up almost immediately when Cal discovered CHIMERA existed.

“Daisy and I quickly became the best of friends. We did everything together. Then, as we got older, we realized the, well, the truth about ourselves and what we meant to each other. She won’t tell me when she realized, but it clicked for me when we went skinny dipping one summer’s day. She popped out of water, her hair waving in the sunlight, and then she smiled at me. I knew I was in love.

“We came out to our parents together at Skye’s Sweet 16. They were all very supportive of our relationship. We got married the day after she turned 18. We went on to become infiltration agents. Lie our way onto or just break into SSR bases to steal intel. We were the best. And then, one day, we failed.

“We were supposed to infiltrate a base where there were rumors of SSR holding the remains of deceased CHIMERA agents. But it went south. We were stuck, caught in an old culvert. Daisy ran out of our hiding place to draw their attention. I tried to stop her, but she just told me to run.

‘Simmons’ started sobbing again.

“So, I ran, but I turned around just long enough to see them shoot her in the head, then drag her body away. I cried for days. I was a widow at 25. I was a wreck. I wanted to die. So, I volunteered for what I thought was a suicide mission. Infiltrate SSR headquarters and find out what they were doing with the dead CHIMERA agents. Took weeks of creating false paper trails, but I got in.

“When I got there, the best I was expecting to do was to find her body, steal it and take it with me to bury her. I even… I even considered shooting myself in the head so they’d bury us together...

“But I didn’t expect a miracle. I didn’t expect to find her on some sort of machine pumping a blue fluid into her, let alone awake, alive again…”

“A blue fluid… oh my God, they have GH-325!” Jemma said in a slight state of shock…

“They brought her back like they brought Coulson back!” Daisy added wide eyed. “Like they brought me back.”

“You died two?” ‘Simmons’ asked her

“I came close” Daisy replied.

“Now that her memories are coming back, is she gonna start… you know?” Scott asked “With the drawing thing?”

“I never had the compulsion.” Daisy told him “If she’s also got inhuman DNA, she should be fine.”

“SSR was using the bodies to create these… freak soilders. They had some sort of machine; it was used to control them.” ‘Simmons’ continued “It gave them two personalities. One was their normal everyday personality; the other was the agent personas, what made them living weapons. Every time they needed them for a mission, they would be called into that room, sedated and have their minds switched. When the mission was over, they went back into the room and had their memories erased and everything went back to the way it was.”

“Why would they go through the trouble…” Scott started

“Compartmentalization of information.” Daisy told him “The other personality doesn’t remember, they can’t be interrogated.”

‘Simmons’ nodded in agreement. “Skye’ was the everyday person. I was assigned to care for her as my first job. There were a few things they never overwrote such as personal tastes, their likes and dislikes, stuff that didn’t really matter to the project. Sexuality seems to be one of them because when she saw me for the first time as Skye, thankfully, she fell head over heels in love with me all over again.

“But, when she went into that machine, she became Agent Seven. She’s cold, calculating, vindictive and a loyal solider of Rodgers. It made me sick to my stomach to watch every time as the sweet office girl I married twice was turned off and the Nazi-like monstrosity within her was switched on”

“So it sounds like they have their own version of project TAHITI,” Scott noted “only instead of saving people, it sounds like they use it to make them into their own version of Winter Soldiers.”

“How did she end up with the name ‘Skye’ then?” Daisy asked “I picked that for myself.”

“Wait… You called yourself Skye?” Simmons asked her

“Better than my legal name the nuns in the orphanage gave me… Mary Sue Poots.” She said with disgust while her friends tried to hide their snickering “I didn’t know Daisy was my real name until about three years ago when I finally met my parents.”

“From what I understood, it was assigned to her and then implanted.” Simmons said

Even May was shocked at this “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I was scared of Skye.” She admitted “They told us that if we talked about the project within earshot of the agents outside the conditioning room, they were programmed to kill us. It overrode everything else.”

“Question…” Scott said, raising his hand “Do you think that programming is still active?”

“I don’t know, why?” Simmons responded.

“oh, just, you know, that…” Scott pointed to the door to the bedroom, where Skye was standing, looking dead eyed.

“Dr Jemma Simmons” Skye said flatly “You have violated SSR protocol one zero one. Project security must be maintained. Protocol requires you must be terminated.”


	21. Awaken the darkness

Skye, acting like she was possessed, lunged forward, only to be intercepted by Daisy, who cut right to the chase and punched her twin square in the stomach. But Skye didn’t fall, she stood still as if the hit didn’t faze her.

“Encountering resistance to completing objective.” Skye said “Eliminating resistance.”

Skye reached out and began to choke Daisy with both hands. “Skye… Stop it!” Daisy forced out, but Skye began to squeeze harder and harder.

“Get your hands off her!” Scott shouted as she began to lose consciousness. He, May and Fitz ran towards the two when Skye let go with one hand and the three felt themselves being knocked back into the walls and furniture.

Skye or rather, Agent Seven, had her powers all along.

“Alright, not more mister nice guy…” Scott yelled, slamming his fist into the floor. He stayed low to the ground, closed his eyes and reached out with is hand, repeating “Gotta focus… gotta focus.”

Daisy’s vision was starting to turn black, when three loud pops echoed through the plane. She felt the vice grip around her neck disappear and the grey image of the woman she’d come to see as a family slump down onto the floor. Daisy soon found herself collapsing to her knees. She rubbed her eyes and breathed deeply for a few moments before he vision cleared.

Skye was lying in a heap on the floor, the impact wounds of three ICER rounds in her back.

Scott quickly got himself off the floor and ran over to Daisy, helping her up. The two embraced, with her crying into his chest and him kissing the top of her head. “I’ve got you.” He told her.

“Don’t let go” she whispered back “Don’t ever let go”.

“Never.”

 “She wasn’t talking in her sleep.” Simmons noted, shaken at what happened “She was warning me.”

“Let’s get her back into bed,” Scott suggested

“And maybe tie her down.” added Fitz added from the side of the room.

 Scott and May picked Skye up and carried her back to the bed. Scott walked over to what was normally his underwear draw and examined the hole he’d put in it before opening it and removing the fired ICER.

“And this is why I keep a spare…” He said, sliding it into his holster.

“So Rodgers can resurrect the dead as super soldiers?” May asked, overwhelmed. “That goes against everything he’s ever said…”

“You’ve never met a politician who wasn’t a ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ type?” Jemma answered “The whole ‘restrict science’ thing sounded fishy from the start.”

“He only wants the best toys for himself…” Fitz said, struggling to his feet. “Those soldiers back at the airfield must have been a similar project.”

 

“So, now what?” Scott asked as they stood around the bottom of the stairs on the airport tarmac.

 “May” Daisy suggested “You take guard duty. Fitz, you should get cracking on that engine. Jemma, we need to take stock of our resources and Doc, keep an eye on your wife. She’s going to need you when she wakes up.”

“Doc?” The pregnant woman asked.

 “We need some way to tell the two of you apart” Daisy said “Calling you ‘Doctor Simmons’ all the time is a mouthful and ‘Pregnant Lady’ won’t last much longer. If you or… you, come up with a better idea, let us know.”

“Jas… Call me Jas.”

“Jas?” Daisy asked

“Jemma Anne Simmons. J A S. Jas. When ‘Skye’ was still ‘Daisy’, that’s what she’d call me. All our stuff at the base was labeled with our initials and she just started calling me that and it stuck.”

“I guess ‘Jas’ it is then…” Scott said

“What are you and Scott going to do?” May asked

“Head into town, scope the place out and see what resources we can acquire.”

“You just want some alone time” Fitz responded.

Daisy looked at Scott “We need it…”they said together.

 

The pair climbed into the car and headed out.

“We spent so much time worrying about Skye, we forgot where we were and what we were doing.” Daisy said.

“We so need a vacation…” Scott said “Or at least some private time. Just the two of us. Wanna find a motel?”

“Work first.” Daisy said “Fun time later.”

“Yes Ma’am.”He said.

Daisy leaned forward and put her hands to her head.

“You alright?” Scott asked.

“It’s just… the last year has been one thing after another.”

“Daisy, that basically described our lives with SHIELD. Centpide, HYDRA, Ward, Hive, Aida, Ivanov, the Framework, The kree, Hale, the Confederacy, Tablot losing his marbels, Coulson almost dying again and now Skye and this whole mess. And that’s just in the time we’ve known each other. One problem gets fixed, another rears its ugly head.”

“I just… sometimes I wish I was just a normal girl with a normal life… normal job, normal friends… maybe a normal guy…”

“…That’s why you didn’t want them to take out the power inhibitor…” Scott said, finally understanding.

“That and the whole ‘Destroyer of Worlds’ thing” she said.

“Who says you can’t be. Normal is relative… You can have a big house, with a picket fence, kids playing out in the yard and still kick ass 9 to 5…”

They saw a gas station and decided to pull over to do some basic fact finding.

“Well, this doesn’t help” Scott said “Last newspaper they’ve got in a national edition USA Today. But, take a look at this.”

He handed her the paper.

“Have we gone back in time? This is dated for May…”

“Or time on this world is somehow moving differently. Maybe a millisecond slower or something.”

She looked up at him.

“I watched a lot of ‘Sliders’ when I was a kid”

 

“I don’t recognize any of these names.” Daisy said as different directional road signs pasted “We’re definitely not in the northeast anymore.”

“At least everything is still in English.”

“True.”

“We’re gonna need cover stories.” Scott pointed out

“So ‘Young couple in love on a long road trip’ not cutting it?”

“Well, I thought that part was a given…” He said with a smile.

“This seems to be a good enough place to start.” Daisy said, pointing to a large road sign

 

 

"Central City: 10 miles."

 

 

**TO BE CONTIUNED**

**in**

**AGENTS OF SHIELD: OPERATION EXILES**

**Volume 2**

** _"CRISIS ON EARTH_ _ONE"_   
**

 


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